Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was a Democratic Party member who served as the 28th president of the United States from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1921. He led the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where he became a principal architect and advocate of the League of Nations, officially formed in 1920 to maintain peace after World War I.

In his Address to the Peace Conference in Paris, France, on January 25, 1919, President Wilson expressed his earnest desire and obligation to ensure that the League of Nations serves its duty as an essential proponent of peace:

“You can imagine, gentlemen, I dare say, the sentiments and the purpose with which representatives of the United States support this great project for a league of nations. We regard it as the keystone of the whole program which expressed our purposes and ideals in this war and which the associated nations have accepted as the basis of the settlement. If we returned to the United States without having made every effort in our power to realize this program, we should return to meet the merited scorn of our fellow citizens.”

On account of his devotion to the cause, the League commissioned the President to configure the boundaries of the First Republic of Armenia along with other nearby countries. This undertaking was an integral part of the Treaty of Sèvres, a pact drafted and signed between the Western Allied Powers and the defeated Ottoman Empire in August 1920. More specifically, as an arbitration award, it reassigned vanquished territories to their original owner countries to ensure their population viability. The United States secretary of state officiated the President's arbitral award with the Great Seal of the United States. This document later became commonly known within the Armenian community as Wilsonian Armenia.

The treaty recognized Armenia as a “free and independent” state in Section VI “Armenia,” Articles 88-93. By Article 89, “Turkey and Armenia, as well as the other High Contracting Parties agree to submit to the arbitration of the President of the United States of America the question of the frontier to be fixed between Turkey and Armenia in the vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van, and Bitlis, and to accept his decision thereupon, as well as any stipulations he may prescribe as to access for Armenia to the sea, and as to the demilitarization of any portion of Turkish territory adjacent to the said frontier.” The treaty also specified that the borders between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were to be determined by direct negotiation between those states, with the Principle Allied Powers making the decision should these states fail to do so.

Lastly, the treaty demanded a final determination of the individuals responsible for the Armenian genocide. Specifically, Article 230 of the Treaty of Sèvres required the Ottoman Empire to “hand over to the Allied Powers the persons whose surrender may be required by the latter as being responsible for the massacres committed during the continuance of the state of war on territory which formed part of the Ottoman Empire on August 1, 1914.”

President Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a scholar and statesman best remembered for his foreign policy achievements and high-minded idealism aimed at establishing enduring world democracy and peace. He was a remarkable leader who played a vital role in the history of Armenia.