On 7 October 1918, Talât and his cabinet resigned. The next day, the new Sultan, Mehmet VI Vahideddin, asked Tevfık Pasha, the former Ottoman ambassador to Britain, to form a new cabinet. General Izzet Pasha, a former war minister and close associate of Enver’s, was charged with negotiating the terms of the anticipated armistice. By including several Ittihadists in his cabinet – Fethi Bey [Okyar] as interior minister, Mehmed Cavid as minister of the economy, Hayri Bey as justice minister, and Hüseyin Rauf as minister of the navy – the new Grand Vizier secured the support of Young Turk circles.
In the beginning of October 1918, Khalil [Kut] Pasha informed the Armenian government in Yerevan that he had received the order to withdraw the Ottoman forces from the Lori-Pambak region. Dro, the Commander of the Armenian Dilijan-Lori Battalion settled in the positions of the departing Turks. On October 30, in accordance with the Armistice of Mudrosand under pressure from the British, the Ottoman Empire was forced to bring out its forces from the entire Transcaucasus. By June 1919, besides Lori-Pambak, the province of Alexandrapol, the remaining part of the province of Etchmiadzin, Surmalu, Sharur, Nakhijevan, and the Kars region were gradually included within the borders of the Republic of Armenia, in some cases without resistance.
On the other hand, after the defeat of the Ottoman Turks and their departure from the Transcaucasus, the British forces, which had moved into the regions the latter had vacated, were trying to subject Karabakh and Zangezur to Azerbaijan. In the beginning the same policy was being carried out for Kars. At that time the province of Kars was de facto managed by the Turkish local authority, the Shura [Council] which, by opposing the Armenians, was trying to ensure Turkish prevalence in the region, and, if that was impossible, then to create an independent state, which would include the regions of Kars, Batum, and Akhaltskha. The British did not want to irritate the Muslims and, making various excuses, did not want to help and did not help the Armenians to take the region of Kars under their control.
On January 8, 1919, an agreement was signed between General George Forestier-Walker, Commander of the Allied Forces (Entente) in the Western Transcaucasus and Sirakan Tigranyan, Armenia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, according to which, pending the signing of the final Armenian-Turkish peace agreement, a British military governor was to be appointed in Kars. The civilian authority was envisaged to be exclusively formed of Armenians: to be more precise, a solely Armenian authority from Alexandrapol to Kars, a mixed one in Kars, and a Turkish-British one on the border, under the supervision of the military governor.
General Forestier-Walker informed the Armenian government that a part of the province of Kars, the section between Alexandrapol and the city of Kars, was to be emptied of Turkish forces by January 15, 1919. “A couple of days will be given for the evacuation of the city of Kars and the remaining section of the region. During that time the Turks must leave the province of Kars entirely and occupy the 1914 border. A British general, with the rights of a military governor, will sit in Kars. To govern the civilian section, the government of Armenia will appoint a governor, provincial commissars, and other officials. The railway and telegraph links up to Kars will be developed by civil servants appointed by Armenia. A mixed Armenian-Turkish commission will manage the Kars station and railway and the telegraph up to Karaurgan, until the Turks entirely return to the previous borders, after which everything will be in the hands of the Armenians. There will be an Armenian government in Kars. Elections for councils and committees in the province must be with the participation of representatives of all nations, on a proportional basis. During the elections, the number of Armenians must be taken as not the number of those currently returning, but the number at the time of their flight. The Turks can take all that is Turkish from Kars. Besides that, they will take 430 thousand kilograms of wheat and a certain amount of sugar to meet the needs of their army.”
Based on the agreement signed between Forestier-Walker and Tigranyan, the British military governor and the Armenian civil authority left for Kars. However, the Turks greeted the Armenians with such hostility and threats, that the British advised the Armenian officials to leave for Alexandrapol. From April 1919, the policy of the British Command in the Transcaucasus drastically changed in favour of the Armenians. With the agreement of the Armenian government and the British High Command, it was decided to seize the city with joint Armenian-British forces. Colonel Clive ErringtonTemberley was appointed military governor of Kars and on April 12, Stepan Ghorghanyan [Korganyan] was appointed civilian governor. Armenian and British forces moved forward by train and road and entered Kars on April 24 without meeting any resistance. The Shura tried to oppose it, but the British arrested the members of the Shura and other prominent Turks, around 150 of them, and sent them to Malta. On May 2 the Arpachay-Sarighamish railroad fell into the hands of the Armenians. Regular transport began. On May 9 the Armenian forces captured Merdenek. On May 13 they entered Olti and Kaghzvan [Kagziman] without a fight. On May 10 Prime Minister Alexander Khatisyan and Brigadier General Keith Maitland Davie were welcomed to Kars with festivities. A national blessing took place in the historic monastery of Holy Apostoles where in his speech Khatisyan announced, “Our forces must capture the Alashkert valley and Basen by May 15.”
After the signing of the treaty in Batum in June 1918, the Ottoman forces had converged towards Nakhijevan and entered Agulis on July 25. On August 8, Khalil Bey, an officer in the Ottoman army, who had at his disposition five or six other Turkish officers and around 1000 local Tatar soldiers, was appointed the military governor of Ordubad [Goghtn] and its surroundings. In December of 1918, Jafar Ghouli Khan, with the encouragement of the Musavatists and the Young Turks, had proclaimed the Republic of Araxes.
After the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in the First World War, Khalil’s forces were dispersed. He was transferred to Sharur where he organised forces to fight against Armenia. On the other hand, after Khalil’s departure, the Armenian villages of Goghtn province formed a local authority. A similar government was formed by the Muslims in Ordubad. At first, at least externally, relations between these two were friendly.
In December of 1918, the Armenian forces tried to free Nakhijevan from its Turkish-Tatar occupation but met with Muslim resistance at Sharur. Armenian forces managed to take the city of Nakhijevanonly in May of 1919, with the support of British forces.
Elated by the rapid turn events the Armenian government planned to bring Sharur-Nakhijevan into the republic as a separate province, subdivided into the districts of Goghtan (Ordubad), Nakhijevan, and Sharur with the respective administrative centers in the towns of Agulis, Nakhijevan, and Bash-Norashen. Gevorg Varshamyan was named to serve as the first governor. A special committee composed of Varshamyan, Khatisyan, Dro, and General Hakhverdyan finalised the details of the annexation even though unanimity of opinion on procedure was lacking. Dro, supported by the militant leaders outside the committee, insisted that a full-scale military command over Nakhijevan was the only means by which Yerevan could be freed from the perpetual threat of insurrection and isolation and by which the Muslim population could be bent to make its peace with the government.
The other committee members and the cabinet hesitated, albeit for differing reasons. One group, giving greater preference to conciliation and accommodation, upheld the policy espoused by Stepan Korganyan in Kars and advocated a cautious, peaceful approach to gaining Muslim obedience and loyalty. The second group, probably the majority, believed that Armenia must take swift advantage of the favourable British disposition while it lasted; valuable time ought not be lost in a thorough, progressive military occupation. Instead, an Armenian civil administration should be installed in Nakhijevan at the earliest possible moment.
The well-executed seizure of power at Kars reassured the British strategists that the procedure at Nakhijevan could be as smooth, thus permitting the withdrawal of the imperial troops within the time limit set by Commander-in-Chief George Francis Milne. Brigadier General Keith Maitland Davie first discussed this phase of his assignment with Khatisyan at Alexandrapol on April 17 and then proceeded to Yerevan to review the military scheme worked out by Dro.
The arrangement to extend Armenia’s jurisdiction over Nakhijevan was made public on May 3 in a declaration signed by Dro and witnessed by General Davie. “The war is over,” it began, “the sufferings and torture of the people must come to an end”. By the decision of the Allies and the Armenian government, divisions of the Yerevan detachment, headed by Dro, were to proceed to Nakhijevan to secure peaceful conditions for all inhabitants. Dro demanded unwavering discipline from his men: “I address you, troops under my command. You are representatives of the government. You must protect life and property of all citizens of the republic without distinction of nationality.”
On May 13, Khatisyan and Davie took governor-designate Gevorg Varshamyan and his staff aboard a train, passing by General Shelkovnikov’s column, as it pressed onto Sharur, and sped ahead to Nakhijevan. From Nakhijevan, Khatisyan and Davie traveled southwards all the way to the frontier with Persia. This vital route to the outside world finally stood open to Armenia. At Julfa, Khatisyan wired salutations to the Persian Prime Minister Vosuqed-Dowleh, who replied by extolling the traditional bonds between Armenia and Persia and welcoming the Republic of Armenia as a neighbour. Khatisyan returned to Yerevan on May 16, leaving Governor Varshamyan to begin his prodigious duties. Four days later the first company of Armenian soldiers entered Nakhijevan.
However, Nakhijevan remained under the control of the republic of Armenia for only less than two months. “In July of 1919, the Armenian authority had had serious failures in Nakhijevan where an Armenian prefecture had been established. There was a small Armenian force there but the population, which was almost completely Muslim, was under the influence of Turks and Azerbaijanis,” writes Vratsyan.
One of the ministers, Artashes Babalyan adds, “In spring of 1919 British forces captured Sharur and Nakhijevan and handed the authority of those two provinces to us. We barely managed to keep them for two months. The local Tatar population, having Turkish officers as leaders, rebelled on July 23, and our forces were obliged to retreat towards Yerevan, with heavy losses. There were no British forces at the time of the rebellion, and that was the reason why the Muslims rebelled and attacked our forces and gained power. Our government’s appeals and urgent requests to keep the small British force in Nakhijevan for a little longer were in vain.”
Independent Armenia existed with a territory of over 45 thousand square kilometres but, as Ruben [Ter-Minasyan] writes, in fact “two-thirds of its Muslim population was in the hands of Azerbaijan and the Turks. … It was a country, whose keys were to be found in others’ hands. It was a treasure which had been given to the Armenian nation but the right to utilise it was given only to the Tatars and Turks, because they were sitting on the fertile soils and all the different mines of Armenia, leaving the Armenians with only rocky mountains, the waters of Sevan and the proud illusion that we Armenians are the owners and rulers of Armenia.”
To be contiunued
From Tatul Hakobyan’s book – ARMENIANS and TURKS
Image – today’s Kars
This book covers almost the whole spectrum of Armenian-Turkish relations, including the different attitudes of Diasporan circles and masses to the past, present, and future relations with the Turks. Tatul Hakobyan’s work is a smooth mix of history and journalism. This extremely complex and significant period of history is presented coherently, simply, in an easy to follow narrative that links together the various periods during the tumultuous 100 years beginning in 1918. Armenians and Turks, is packed with political insight, historical revelation, and even a poetic vision of a complicated relationship which unfolded, over a century, between two peoples. Hakobyan has established himself as an indispensable journalist, expert, and scholar of this ongoing saga. Written in the journalistic style using strict standards of scholarship, the author has evidently undertaken wide-ranging research. This book is of great interest not only to historians, diplomats, or experts who study issues of Armenian-Turkish relations and their impact on the future of the South Caucasus, but also for a wide range of readers.
Paperback: 435 pages,
Language: English, Second Revised Edition
2013, Yerevan, Lusakn,
ISBN 978-9939-0-0706-9.
