Turkish–Armenian War
| Turkish–Armenian War | |||||||||
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| Part of the Turkish War of Independence | |||||||||
 Armenian civilians fleeing Kars after its capture by Kâzım Karabekir's forces. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Democratic Republic of Armenia |
 Grand National Assembly
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Daniel Bek-Pirumyan Harutiun Hovsepian Movses Silikyan |
 Kâzım Karabekir Rüştü Pasha Osman Nuri Koptagel Cavit Erdel Halit Karsıalan Kâzım Orbay |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 20,000 men[2] | 19,707 men[3] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 60,000-98,000[4] | unknown | ||||||||
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The Turkish–Armenian War stemmed from an invasion of the Democratic Republic of Armenia by the Turkish Revolutionaries of the Turkish National Movement in the autumn of 1920. In a span of four months, Mustafa Kemal Pasha's Turkish Nationalist armies, financed and armed largely by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic,[5][6] were able to occupy the western portions of Armenia and impose a harsh settlement which resulted in the loss of over half its territory.[7]
The Turkish military victory was followed by Soviet Russia's occupation and sovietization of the rest of the DRA. The Treaty of Moscow between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (March 1920) and the identical Treaty of Kars (October 1920) finalized the effective partitioning of Armenia between Turkey and Soviet Russia, with the subsequent creation of the USSR's Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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[edit] Background
With the dissolution of the Russian Empire in the wake of the Feb 1917 revolution and the Transcaucasian Federation in May 1918 the Armenians of the South Caucasus were left little recourse but to declare their independence and formally establish the Democratic Republic of Armenia.[8] In its two years of existence, the tiny republic, with its capital in Yerevan, was beset with a number of debilitating problems, ranging from fierce territorial disputes with its neighbors and an appalling refugee crisis.[9]
Armenia's most crippling problem, however, was its dispute with its neighbor to the west, the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, the Young Turk leadership of the Ottoman Empire had embarked on a systematic campaign to annihilate the Armenians living both within its borders and those living in former Russian Armenia. Although the armies of the Ottoman Empire eventually occupied the South Caucasus in the summer of 1918 and stood poised to crush the republic, Armenia was able to resist until the end of October, when the empire surrendered to the Allied powers. Though the Ottoman Empire saw their country come under partial occupation by the Allies, they did not immediately withdraw their forces from the pre-war Russo-Turkish boundary until February of the following year, and many troops remained mobilized along this frontier.[10]
[edit] Bolshevik and Turkish nationalist movements
During the First World War and in the ensuing peace negotiations in Paris, the victorious Allies had vowed to punish the Young Turks and reward the eastern provinces of the empire to the nascent Armenian republic.[11] The Allies, however, placed their main priority on concluding the peace treaties with Germany and the other European members of the Central Powers. In matters related to the Near East, the principal powers, Great Britain, France, Italy and the United States, had conflicting interests over the spheres of influence they were to assume. The crippling internal disputes between the Allies, as well as the United States' indecisiveness in accepting a mandate over Armenia, in particular, ultimately allowed disaffected elements in Anatolia in 1920 to coalesce and form the Turkish National Movement, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha.[12] Opposed to any territorial concessions to Armenia, as outlined in the Turkish National Pact, the Nationalists attempted to play off the rivalry of one power against the other and to develop closer ties with the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia.[13]
In his message to Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, dated 26 April 1920, Kemal promised to coordinate his military operations with the Bolsheviks' "fight against imperialist governments" and requested five million lira in gold as well as armaments "as first aid" to his forces.[14] In 1920 alone, the Lenin government supplied the Kemalists with 6,000 rifles, over five million rifle cartridges, 17,600 projectiles as well as 200.6 kg of gold bullion; in the following two years the amount of aid increased.[5] Conversely the Armenians received from the Allies in July 1920 about 40,000 uniforms and 25,000 rifles with a great amount of ammunition.[15]
It was only in August 1920 that the Allies drafted the peace settlement of the Near East in the form of the Treaty of Sèvres. Despite the fact that the United States had refused to assume the Armenian mandate in May of that year, the Allies delegated that the US draw the western boundaries of the republic, which ultimately awarded it with four of the six eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, with an outlet to the Black Sea.[16] The Treaty of Sèvres only served to confirm Kemal's suspicions about Allied plans to partition the empire and his decision to order the invasion of Armenia was, in historian Richard G. Hovannisian's words, meant to show them that "the treaty would not be accepted and that there would be no peace until the West was ready to offer new terms in keeping with the principles of the Turkish National Pact."[17]
[edit] Active stage
[edit] Armenian offensive towards Muslim shuras
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[edit] Armenian offensive towards Olti and Bardiz areas
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[edit] Turkish counter-offensive at Bardiz area
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[edit] Sarikamish
According to Turkish and Soviet sources, Turkish plans to invade Armenia were already in place as early as June 1920.[18] Using Turkish sources, Bilâl Şimşir has identified mid-June as to when exactly the Ankara government began to prepare for a campaign in the east.[19] Kâzım Karabekir was assigned command of the newly formed Eastern Front on June 9, 1920[20] and was given the authority of a field army over all civil and military officials in the Eastern Front on June 13 or 14.[21] Skirmishes between Kemal's forces and the Armenian military in the border of Kars were frequent during that summer, although full-scale hostilities did not break out until September. Convinced that the Allies would not come to the defense of Armenia and aware of the fact that Armenia's leaders had failed to get Soviet Russia to recognize the country's independence, Kemal gave the order to commanding general Kâzım Karabekir to advance into Armenia.[22] At 2:30 in the morning of September 13, five battalions from the Turkish XV Army Corps crossed the Turkish-Armenian border and surprised the thinly spread and unprepared Armenian armies at Olti and Peniak (now Penek village in Şenkaya district). By dawn, Karabekir's forces had occupied Peniak and the Armenians had suffered at least 200 casualties and been forced to retreat east towards Sarikamish.[23] As neither the Allied powers nor Soviet Russia reacted to the Turkish invasion, on September 20 Kemal authorized Karabekir to push onwards and take Kars and Kaghisman.
By this time, Karabekir's army had grown to the size of four divisions (consisting of 25,000 men). At 3:00 in the morning of September 28, the four divisions of the XV Army Corps advanced towards Sarikamish and created such anxiety and panic that the town was abandoned by the Armenians when they entered it at dawn the next day.[24] They then started towards Kars but this assault was delayed by Armenian resistance. In early October, the Armenian government pleaded that the Allies intervene and put a halt to the Turkish advance, to no avail. Most of Britain's available forces in the Near East were concentrated on crushing the tribal uprisings in the Iraq, while France and Italy faced similar difficulties in the French Mandate of Syria and Italian-controlled Antalya.[25] Neighboring Georgia declared neutrality during the conflict.
On October 11, Soviet plenipotentiary Boris Legran arrived in Yerevan with a text to negotiate a new Soviet-Armenian agreement.[26] The agreement signed at October 24 secured Soviet support.[26] The most important part of this agreement was on Kars, which Armenia agreed to secure.[26] The Turkish national movement was not happy with possible agreement between the Soviets and Armenia. Karabekir was informed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey regarding the Boris Legran agreement and ordered to resolve the Kars issue. The same day the agreement between Armenia and Soviet was signed, Karabekir moved his forces toward Kars.
[edit] Capture of Kars and Alexandropol
On October 24, Karabekir's forces launched a new, massive campaign against Kars.[25] Rather than fighting for the city, the Armenians abandoned Kars which by October 30 came under full Turkish occupation.[27] Turkish forces continued to advance, and a week after the capture of Kars, they took control of the city of Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri, Armenia)[7] On November 12, the Turks also captured the strategic village of Agin, northeast of the ruins of the former Armenian capital of Ani and then planned to move towards Yerevan. On November 13, Georgia broke its neutrality after concluding an agreement with Armenia to invade the disputed region of Lori which was established as a Neutral Zone (the Shulavera Condominium) between the two nations in early 1919.[28]
[edit] Treaty of Alexandropol
The Turks, headquartered in Alexandropol, presented the Armenians with an ultimatum which they were forced to accept. However, this was followed by a more radical demand which threatened the existence of Armenia as a viable entity. The Armenians at first rejected this demand, but when Karabekir's forces continued to advance, they had little choice but to capitulate.[25] On November 18, 1920, a cease-fire agreement was concluded.[7]
However, as the terms of defeat were being negotiated between Karabekir and Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan, Joseph Stalin, on the command of Vladimir Lenin, ordered Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze to enter Armenia from Azerbaijan in order to establish a new pro-Bolshevik government in the country. On November 29, the Soviet Eleventh Army invaded Armenia at Karavansarai (present-day Ijevan).[25] Fearing the capture of Yerevan and Echmiadzin by Turkish forces in the case that the Bolsheviks should not arrive, the Armenians signed the Treaty of Alexandropol on December 2 with Turkey in which Armenia was to disarm most of its military forces, cede more than 50% of its pre-war territory, and to give up all the territories granted to it at the Treaty of Sèvres,[7] which was not ratified by the Armenian Parliament as the Soviet invasion took place at the same time.
[edit] Aftermath
In late November 1920, there was yet another Soviet-backed communist uprising in Armenia. On November 28, 1920, blaming Armenia for the invasions of Sharur (20 November) and Karabakh (21 November), the 11th Red Army under the command of Anatoliy Hekker (Anatoli Gekker) crossed the demarcation line between the Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan. The second Soviet-Armenian war lasted only a week. Exhausted by the six years of permanent wars and conflicts, the Armenian army and population were incapable of any further active resistance.
When, on December 4, 1920, the Red Army entered Yerevan, the government of Armenian Republic effectively surrendered. On December 5, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom, consisting mostly of Armenians from Azerbaijan) also entered the city. Finally, on the following day, the December 6, the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky's dreaded secret police, entered Yerevan. At this point, Armenia ceased to exist as an independent state.[25]
Soon afterward, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed.
[edit] Settlement
The violence in Transcaucasia was finally settled in a friendship treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (which proclaimed Turkish Republic in 1923), and the RSFSR. The "Treaty on Friendship and Brotherhood" also called the Treaty of Moscow, signed on March 16, 1921 and the following Treaty of Kars, which was signed in Kars by the representatives Azerbaijan SSR, Armenian SSR, Georgian SSR, and the GNAT ceded Adjara to Soviet Georgia in exchange for the Kars territory (today the Turkish provinces of Kars, Iğdır, and Ardahan).
Under the treaties, an autonomous Nakhchivan oblast under Azerbaijan's protectorate was established.
[edit] See also
- Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918 - 1920)
- Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
- Caucasus Campaign
- Treaty of Kars
[edit] Notes
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1996). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV: Between Crescent and Sickle, Partition and Sovietization. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 394–397. ISBN 0-5200-8804-2.
- ^ (French) Ter Minassian, Anahide (1989). La république d'Arménie. 1918-1920 La mémoire du siècle. Brussels: éditions complexe, p. 220. ISBN 2-8702-7280-4.
- ^ Ergün Aybars, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti tarihi, Ege Üniversitesi Basımevi, 1984, pg 319-334
- ^ These are according to the figures provided by Alexander Miasnikyan, the President of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Armenia, in a telegram he sent to the Soviet Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin in 1921. Miasnikyan's figures were broken down as follows: of the approximately 60,000 Armenians who were killed by the Turkish armies, 30,000 were men, 15,000 women, 5,000 children, and 10,000 young girls. Of the 38,000 who were wounded, 20,000 were men, 10,000 women, 5,000 young girls, and 3,000 children. Instances of mass rape, murder and violence were also reported against the Armenian populace of Kars and Alexandropol: see Vahakn N. Dadrian. (2003). The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 360-361. ISBN 1-5718-1666-6.
- ^ a b (Russian) Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn, 1963, № 11, p. 148.
- ^ Sheremet, V. Босфор (Bosporus). Moscow, 1995, p. 241.
- ^ a b c d Dr. Andrew Andersen, Ph.D. Atlas of Conflicts: Turkish-Armenian War
- ^ For the period leading up to independence see Richard G. Hovannisian (1967). Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-5200-0574-0.
- ^ The full history of the Armenian republic is covered by Richard G. Hovannisian, Republic of Armenia. 4 Vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971-1996.
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The First Year, 1918-1919, Vol. I. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 416ff. ISBN 0-5200-1984-9.
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. "The Allies and Armenia, 1915-18." Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 145-168.
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versailles to London, 1919-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 20–39, 316–364, 404–530. ISBN 0-5200-4186-0.
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. "Armenia and the Caucasus in the Genesis of the Soviet-Turkish Entente." International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (April, 1973), pp. 129-147.
- ^ (Russian) Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn, 1963, № 11, pp. 147-148. The first publication of Kemal's letter to Lenin, in excerpts, in Russian.
- ^ (French) Ter Minassian, Anahide (1989). La république d'Arménie. 1918-1920 La mémoire du siècle. Brussels: éditions complexe, ISBN 2-8702-7280-4, page 196
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 40-44.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, p. 180.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, p. 194, note 27.
- ^ (Turkish) Şimşir, Bilâl N. Ermeni Meselesi, 1774-2005 (The Armenian Question, 1774-2005). Bilgi Yayınevi, 2005, p. 182.
- ^ (Turkish) T.C. Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı Yayınları, Türk İstiklâl Harbine Katılan Tümen ve Daha Üst Kademlerdeki Komutanların Biyografileri, Genkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, Ankara, 1972.
- ^ "Kâzım Karabekir Paşa, Doğu Cephesi'nde bulunan bütün sivil ve askeri makamlar üzerinde seferdeki ordu komutanlığı yetkisine haizdir": (Turkish) Kemal Atatürk, Atatürk'ün bütün Eserleri: 23 Nisan-7/8 Temmuz 1920 (The Complete Works of Atatürk: 23 April-7/8 July). Kaynak Yayınları, 2002, p. 314. ISBN 9789753433495.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 182-184.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 184-190.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 191-197.
- ^ a b c d e Hewsen, Robert H. Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 237. ISBN 0-226-33228-4
- ^ a b c Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, p. 259.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 253-261.
- ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 222-226.
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