Democratic Republic of Armenia

The Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) or the First Republic of Armenia (TAO: Հայաստանի Առաջին Հանրապետութիւն; RAO: Հայաստանի Առաջին Հանրապետություն Hayastani Arajin Hanrapetut’yun) was the first modern establishment of an Armenian state. The republic was established in the former territory of Eastern Armenia in the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917. The leaders of the government came from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (also known as the ARF or Dashnaktsutyun) and other Armenian political parties who helped create the new republic. When it was established, it bordered the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north, the Ottoman Empire to the west, Persia to the south, and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic to the east.

From the very onset, the DRA was plagued with a variety of domestic and foreign problems. Many of its inhabitants were Armenian refugees who had fled the massacres of the Armenian Genocide in Western Armenia and it almost did not come into existence because of the advances of the armies of the Ottoman Empire, which were intent on eliminating the Armenian people living in the area. The republic lasted for two years, until 1920, when it was finally overwhelmed by Mustafa Kemal's Turkish nationalist government and Soviet Russia.