3002) Vahan Cardashian, The Former Consul Of The Ottoman Empire In Washington

I Bet You did not Know
Forget about the reality television star Kim K(C)ardashian. Let's see the former Consul of the Ottoman Empire in Washington, a much more interesting Vahan Cardashian[1]

Mavi Boncuk |

I Bet You did not Know that The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the outgrowth of the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia (ACIA) which founded after World War I by Vahan Cardashian, the former Consul of the Ottoman Empire in Washington. Many prominent American and Allied leaders including James W. Gerard [2], former U.S. Ambassador to Germany who served as president of the ACIA, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Charles Evans Hughes (later appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), Elihu Root and others participated to this organization. The goal of ACIA was the independent Wilsonian Armenia. The ACIA had a Central Office in New York City and 23 regional offices in 13 states. . .

[1] Vahan Cardashian was born around 1880 in Kayseri/Gesaria, Turkey. Cardashian made his way to the United States in 1902 by marrying an older American. After graduating with a law degree from Yale in 1908 he went on to open a successful legal practice in New York and was a colleague of Armen Karo (Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States of America and soon to direct the hit man squad NEMESIS). From 1911 to 1915, Cardashian represented the Ottoman Embassy and its New York consulate. He resigned his post in 1915 when he claimed that his mother and sister were among the victims of the 1915 Genocide [*]; soon he became active in the American Committee for an Independent Armenia (ACIA).”

James H. Tashjian [**], "Life and Papers of Vahan Cardashian, Armenian Review 10, no. 1 (Spring, 1957): 8.

In 1918 Vahan Cardashian was appointed director of the A.R.F. central committee media office. During this period he closed his private practice and allocated his time and wealth of $40,000 to the Armenian Cause. Cardashian even went after die-hard friends of Armenians, such as the Rev. James Barton and President Woodrow Wilson (see "Wilson, the Wrecker of Armenia"), when these folks would not go far enough for Hai Tahd. In 1934 at the age of 51, Vahan Cardashian died in long island.

Although he was not able to shift US policy against collaboration with Kemalist Turkey, his efforts helped lead to such successes as Woodrow Wilson’s push for a viable Armenia in the Treaty of Sevres, official White House recognition of the Armenian Republic and the blocking of American ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne.

[2] James Watson Gerard (August 25, 1867 - September 6, 1951) was a U.S. lawyer and diplomat. He was appointed to the New York Supreme Court in 1908, where he served as associate justice. Under President Woodrow Wilson, he served as the American Ambassador to Germany from 1913 to 1917. The German government asked him to leave in January of 1917. He left Germany in February, and retired from diplomatic service entirely in July of that year. An ardent Turcophobe, interestingly Gerard once said in a speech: "The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country five hundred thousand Germans reservists [emigrants] who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany. Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had five hundred thousand and one lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the reservists would be hanging the day after they tried to rise."

George H. Doran Company were the American publishers for a large number of British authors and as part of the World War I war propaganda, the company was the major source for Allied literature. Doran published a number of other books on the War including two by James W. Gerard. George H. Doran Company merged with Doubleday, Page & Company in 1927, making "Doubleday, Doran" the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world and the Doran name disappeared in 1946 when the company became known simply as "Doubleday & Company."

[3] James Harutune Tashjian (b. 1922- d. Nov. 29, 2006), better known as Jimmy Tashjian, the chief editor of the Hairenik/Armenian Weekly for more than 3 decades.

[*] He was caught spying and was fired in late October 1915. See "Life and Papers of Vahan Cardashian, Armenian Review, 10:3-39 Aut. 1957, p. 104.)

[**] James Harutune Tashjian (b. 1922-d. Nov. 29, 2006), better known as Jimmy Tashjian, the chief editor of the Hairenik/Armenian Weekly for more than 3 decades.

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Source: MaviBoncuk

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