Coverage of the Turkish-Armenian War of 1920 in the Alexandria Daily Newspaper "Arev"

Abstract

The signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, the Turkish-Armenian war, the Sovietization of Armenia and other parallel events received a wide resonance in the Armenian diaspora press. In 1920, it was an indispensable source of information, including for thousands of Egyptian Armenians.

Alexandria's daily newspaper "Arev" published many articles, analyses, telegraph summaries, reprints related to the Turkish-Armenian war, relations between the two states, including the Sevres peace treaty, the issue of border determination, etc.

It is obvious that in Armenian circles there was unfounded optimism, an incorrect assessment of reality, as a result of which it was expected that in the event of a war against Turkey, the Republic of Armenia would be able to liberate the provinces of Western Armenia.

These sentiments continued in the first weeks of the war, when optimistic news prevailed, while the reality was completely opposite. It is interesting story of the fall of Karsa, and especially rumors about his return.

In the last stage of the war and after that, the search for the culprits in the defeat begins, where party contradictions were of great importance.

The perception and interpretation of the war of 1920 has certain parallels with the Artsakh war of 2020 (unreasonable overestimation of own forces and underestimation of the enemy's forces, search for traitors and culprits, etc.).