While the HOG’s efforts were not altogether in vain, the results it obtained fell short of the Soviet leadership’s expectations. The balance of power in the diaspora was not reversed as easily as had been hoped, and the partisans of the Soviet regime did not succeed in forging a powerful humanitarian organization wholly and unconditionally loyal to Yerevan. This meant that the Soviet leaders still had no choice but to collaborate with the AGBU, even while they continued to pressure it in various ways in order to force it to accept their own working methods.
Two further episodes go a long way to revealing the Soviet leaders’ true feelings about the Union. The first, which is apparently insignificant, has to do with their refusal to name “Nubarashen” after the founder of the AGBU. The aim was both to provoke AGBU leaders, who wanted to pay tribute to Nubar by giving the settlement his name, and, above all, to put pressure on the organization. Remarks made late in 1930 by the HOG’s representative, Snar, who had been designated by Yerevan to deal with problems connected with Nubarashen, confirmed the Soviet attitude. After claiming that the Armenian government would “demand no promises as to the amount to be spent on the construction of the area,” and declaring that it was prepared “to match whatever sum the AGBU might allocate for the purpose, on condition that the future inhabitants of the settlement could choose its name themselves,” Snar added that, “should the AGBU continue to insist on keeping the name Nubarashen, it [would] have to promise to provide $500,000 for the construction of the settlement, payable in three installments. . . before 1 November 1931.”99 Behind the facade of the HOG, it was Soviet Armenia’s leaders who were thus blackmailing the AGBU ... Read all
Haygaz Karageuzian, the AGBU's representative in Yerevan, standing in front of the Taruhi Agopian maternity ward (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
The AGBU and Soviet Armenia