The French Policy in the Republic of Armenia and Transcaucasia in 1919–1920

The authors analyse the French policy in the Republic of Armenia (RA) and Transcaucasia in 1919-1920, methods of France’s establishment in the region and the rivalry with the USA and Great Britain at the Paris Peace Conference. On May 21‒31, 1919 the French Premier G. Clemenceau forced the US President W. Wilson to limit his claims in the big Near East and in the Armenian Republic particularly. Victorious Council of Four at Paris considered the problems of the RA in the general context of the Armenian question. Pursuing its national interests, coined by the Prime Ministers A. Millerand and G. Leygues, France proceeded from the nature of the Ottoman Empire and the course of the civil war in Russia, where the Bolsheviks built new society and strived to restore Russian statehood in the Transcaucasia. Professing economic methods of panetration, France asserted partnership with the new states. It beat the US in the end of May 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference; increased its activity after the withdrawal of the British troops from Transcaucasia in August 1919; in November France became the second Great Power in the Armenian issue. In 1920 the French encouraged independence of the RA, supported Armenia in territorial disputes and did not exclude future cooperation with the non-Bolshevik Russia.