Andrew Andersen

WORLD WAR I AND ITS IMPACT ON THE SOUTH CAUCASUS

(1914 - 1917)

		On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia. Three months later, on October 29 of the same year, Turkey entered the World War by naval bombardment of Russian Black Sea ports. On November 2, Russia declared war on Turkey, and the Caucasus became a battleground. Each ethnic community of the region reacted differently both to the threat of Turkish attack, and to the prospect of Russian victory. Hoping for a quick triumph, most Russians were enthusiastic about the war against Turkey. The possible victory would result in the establishing of Russian hegemony in the Black Sea area and the annexation of Constantinople, which had always been the strategic goal of the Imperial court as well as of Russian nationalists. The Armenians of the Caucasus were mobilized by the fear of Moslem invasion, and also by the possibility of emancipation of West-Armenian population of the hated Ottoman Turks, and even of establishment of a "Greater Armenia". The Azerbaijanis, Ajarians, Kabardians and other Moslem communities, exempt from military service, remained passive, quietly hoping for the defeat of Russia and possible establishment of a "Greater Turan" from the Balkans to China. The reactions of the Georgians were mixed. Most Georgians, as Christians, officially backed the Allies and supported the Russian Empire. On the other hand, they believed to gain very little from victory by either side. Some extreme Georgian nationalists backed Germany, and both Georgian and Russian Marxists hoped for a Russian defeat to be followed by a revolution. Left: Turkish Asker.
In November of 1914, the Turks, under Enver Pasha, invaded South Caucasus but were soon hurled back, and in 1915 and 1916 Russian troops under Count Vorontsov-Dashkov (later, under Grand Duke Nicholas), pushed southwest into Eastern Turkey and Northern Iran, which had also been invaded by the Turks. As the war raged on, the Turkish government pursued a policy of genocide with respect to the Armenians and other Christian communities of the country. In April 1915, by special decree it ordered local authorities to carry out the massive extermination of Armenians and Aysors. In 1915-16 more than one million Armenians were annihilated by Turkish troops and Kurdish irregulars. Over 600,000 people were deported to the Mesopotamian desert, where most of them died. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians took refuge in various countries of the Middle East, Europe and America. At least 200,000 of them resettled to the Caucasus and other parts of the Russian Empire. Right: Kurd irregular (left) and Turkish cavalryman (right).
In the Turkish province of Van, the local Armenians and Aysors launched a desperate revolt. They managed to control most of the province and its capital until the arrival of Russian troops. In response to the massacre, multiple volunteer Armenian regiments were formed in the Caucasus. Together with West-Armenian partisan bands (fidajins), they enthusiastically fought the Ottoman Turks on the Russian side. However the Armenians were to be bitterly disappointed by Russian imperial policy. In early 1916, Russian government planned to settle the liberated Armenian lands with ethnic Russians and Cossacks, under the slogans "Armenia without Armenians" and "No more Bulgarias".
	Between January and August 1916, Russian troops finally defeated the Turkish armies. They conquered vast territory in Eastern Turkey, including most of Turkish Armenia and Paryadria with the major cities Trabzon (Trebizond), Erzerum, Erzinjan and Van. However the revolution of February 1917 and the abdication of Czar Nicholas II drastically changed the situation at the fronts. The first half of 1917 was marked by stagnation of all military operations and rapid demoralization of Russian troops. Left: Russian Cossack from the Expeditionary Corps of Baratov in Northern Iran. BACK TO ARMENIA Video clip: Texts and maps © Andrew Andersen Graphics © Raffaele Ruggeri and Andrei Karaschouk