Altogether unexpectedly, on 24 July 1915, as the Russian forces advancing along the northern and southern shores of Lake Van met up at its western extremity, Tatvan, the offensive came to an abrupt halt and the Russians pulled back, beginning on 27 July, to Akhlat and Sorp.
According to A-To, there was a heavy concentration of Turkish forces on the northern front near Olti and Sarıkamiş. The Russian general staff, when it ordered the evacuation of the region on 30 July, gave fear of encirclement as the official explanation for its decision.
Although military imperatives might conceivably explain the Russians’ prudence, it remains puzzling that St. Petersburg ordered the evacuation of the whole Armenian population of the vilayet of Van, including its capital. Moreover, the Russian authorities’ decision, which was at the very least unexpected, also seemed strange to certain experts at the time.
Thus, the American military attaché, E. F. Riggs, noted in a report that it was the battalions of Armenian volunteers who went to great lengths to aid Van and, above all, that unnecessary retreats were twice organized, probably on purpose.
For 24 hours the Turks were left to enter the city and wreak their will on the inhabitants. Those remaining in the city were subjected to indescribable misery while those attempting to escape were attacked on their way into Russia by
Kurds.
In this manner about 260,000 people, mostly women and children, were turned on the public charge in the Caucasus, who if left protected in their own country could have aided the Russian armies in Armenia by furnishing them with supplies from their farms.
The Russian forces abandoned Van on 3 August, forcing the local Armenian government to evacuate the population of both the city and the surrounding rural zones. Several tens of thousands of people set off toward the north. They were attacked by Kurdish çetes and Turks in a gorge in the region of Perkri, where more than 1,600 people were massacred.
Cevdet Bey even recaptured Van, accompanied by 400 to 600 Çerkez and Kurdish çetes, who slaughtered a few hundred old men and sick people unable to leave the city.135 However, a new defeat inflicted on the Turks on the Olti-Sarıkamiş-Alaşkert front changed the general situation a few days later, and the Russians again took control of the Van region, which was now deserted.
The refugees from Vasburagan and the survivors from Manazgerd and Mush who now arrived in the Caucasus swelled the ranks of those who had already found haven there – former inhabitants of the eastern zones of the vilayet of Erzerum and Armenians fleeing the advance of the Turkish troops in Iranian Azerbaijan. The result was a terrible humanitarian crisis.
In a two-week period from late August and early September, 2,613 deaths were recorded in the city of Echmiadzin alone, due essentially to epidemics. The situation of those who had fled to Yerevan and Igdir was no better.
To be continued
Note- this chapter is from Raymond Kévorkian’s book ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A Complete History, pp. 334-335.
Map- http://www.houshamadyan.org/en/mapottomanempire/vilayet-of-van/
