There was also an Armenian settlement problem that brought conflict with other ethnic residents . In all , there were over 300,000 embittered and impatient Armenian refugees escaping from the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire who were now the government 's responsibility . This proved an insurmountable humanitarian issue . Typhus was a major sickness , because of its effect on children . Conditions in the outlying regions , not necessarily consisting of refugees , were n't any better . The Ottoman governing structure and Russian army had already withdrawn from the region . The Armenian government had neither time nor resources to rebuild the infrastructure . The 393,700 refugees were under their jurisdiction as follows : The government of Hovhannes Kajaznuni was faced with a most sobering reality in the winter of 1918-19 . The newly formed government was responsible for over half a million Armenian refugees in the Caucasus . It was a long and harsh winter . The homeless masses , lacking food , clothing and medicine , had to endure the elements . Many who survived the exposure and famine succumbed to the ravaging diseases . By the spring of 1919 , the typhus epidemic had run its course , the weather improved and the first American Committee for Relief in the Near East shipment of wheat reached Batum . The British army transported the aid to Yerevan . Yet by that time some 150,000 of the refugees had perished . Vratsian puts this figure at around 180,000 , or nearly 20 % of the entire nascent Republic . A report in early 1919 noted that 65 % of the population of Sardarabad , 40 % of the population of eight villages near Etchmiadzin and 25 % of the population of Ashtarak had died
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
First Republic of Armenia