Shishmanian, John Amar

Biographical/Historical Note

John Shishmanian was born in 1882 in Lexington, Kentucky, to George N. and Lucy McClelland Shishmanian. Shishmanian grew up in Constantinople where his father worked as a missionary. He graduated from Robert College and returned to the United States to attend university. Shishmanian graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1903, then studied law at the University of Virginia from 1903 to 1906 and registered at Stanford University in the fall of 1910.

Preceding the entrance of the United States into World War I, Shismanian went to France as a member of the American ambulance field service. He then enlisted in the French Army and rose to the rank of second lieutenant, the highest rank possible for a non-citizen. Following action at the Battle of Verdun, Shishmanian and other French officers were sent to Cyprus to prepare Armenian volunteers for the French Armenian Legion, later known as the Légion Arménienne.

The Légion Arménienne served along the Eastern front in Palestine, Syria, and Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia. For his actions in the Palestine campaign, Shishmanian was awarded the Croix de Guerre medal. In June of 1920, with his term of service completed and the disbandment of the Légion Arménienne, Shishmanian was asked by the French to remain in Adana, Turkey, for three months, from June 10 to September 10, 1920. Shishmanian's task was to organize local Armenian volunteers to defend Adana from attacks by Kemalist rebels.

Despite his success in Adana, Shishmanian was placed under arrest by the French on September 22, 1920, and expelled from Cilicia. It is unclear whether this was due to Shishmanian's refusal to follow an order or the changing policies of the French in the region. Shishmanian's freedom was eventually secured through the interventions of his parents and Jouett Shouse, then undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury. Shishmanian returned to the United States and lived the remainder of his life in Fresno, California.

In recognition of these Armenian volunteers, the French government gave certain assurances to the Délégation Nationale Arménienne based on an Allied victory. In particular, the Cilicia region would become an autonomous Armenian republic under French protection. At the conclusion of the war, the peace treaty terms defined at the Paris Peace Conference did not create an autonomous Armenian republic and control of the region was ceded to the new Republic of Turkey.

From the guide to the John Amar Shishmanian papers, 1879-1946, (Hoover Institution Archives)