1915 Caucasian Front Ensign Vasev Ippolit Andreevich. Transcaucasia during the First World War. Western Armenian Genocide
The Caucasian front, in short, was one of the theaters of the First World War. The main confrontation in this direction was observed between the Russian and Turkish armies. Main fighting in this direction were conducted in the territories of Western Armenia and Persia. For Russian Empire it was a secondary front, however, it was impossible to ignore it, since the Ottoman Empire was eager to recoup all its defeats in the Russian-Turkish wars and claimed a number of Russian territories in this region.
Features of the Caucasian Front
The front line of this front stretched for more than 700 kilometers. The fighting took place in the territories located between Lake Urmia and the Black Sea. At the same time, unlike the European fronts, there was no single continuous barrage line with trenches. Therefore, most of the fighting had to be carried out along narrow mountain paths and passes.
At the very beginning, Russian troops on this front were dispersed into two groups. One of them was supposed to hold the Kars direction, the other - the Erivan direction. At the same time, the Russian flanks were covered by small detachments from among the border guards.
In addition, Russia was assisted here by members of the Armenian volunteer movement, who thus wanted to get rid of Turkish rule.
The course of the war
The first clashes of opponents on the Caucasian front of the First World War took place, in short, in the last autumn month of 1914, the year the Russian army, having begun to advance through enemy territories, stumbled upon enemy forces.
At the same time, the Ottoman Empire began to invade Russian territories. Having resorted to the help of the Algerians, who rebelled against the Russian authorities, the Turks managed to capture a number of territories where the real destruction of the Armenians and Greeks began.
However, the triumph of the Turkish army and government was short-lived. Already at the end of 1914 and the beginning of 15, having successfully carried out the Sarakamysh operation, the Russian Caucasian army not only stopped the offensive, but also defeated the army of Enver Pasha.
1915
At the beginning of this year, in connection with the reorganization of both armies, large-scale military operations on the Caucasian front of the First World War, in short, were not conducted.
But this period was marked by the beginning of the mass genocide of Armenians. Accusing the inhabitants of Western Armenia of desertion, the Turkish military carried out a systematic destruction of the civilian population. However, in a number of places the Armenians managed to organize self-defense. And quite successful.
So, in the city of Van, they defended for almost a month until the approach of the Russian armed forces. As a result of the operation to protect the peaceful Armenian population, Russian army managed to capture several more important settlements along the way and force the Turks to retreat.
In the second half of the year, the Russian army inflicted another significant defeat on the Turkish troops, frustrating their plan of attack in the Kars direction. Thus, Russia facilitated the actions of the allied Great Britain, which was operating at that time in Mesopotamia.
In addition, in the same year (from October to December) the Hamadan operation of the Russian army was carried out, which prevented the entry into the war of Persia, which was already preparing to take the side of the Central Powers.
1916
The next year was no less successful for the Russian side on the Caucasian front. During several operations, they managed to take one of the Turkish fortresses of Erzurum. At the same time, the Turkish garrison, forced to retreat, lost almost ¾ of its personnel and almost all of its artillery.
Russian soldiers also took possession of Trebizond, an important Turkish port. At the same time, almost immediately, Russia began the economic development of new territories.
1917
At the beginning of the year, due to the harsh winter, there were no active operations on the Caucasian front. Only a small attack on Mesopotamia by Russian troops was organized, which again distracted the Ottoman Empire from Great Britain.
After the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia, the same thing happened on this front. As on the Eastern Front of Europe - discipline fell in the army, supplies deteriorated. In addition, among many soldiers came down with malaria. Therefore, it was decided to terminate the Mesopotamian operation, despite the persistent demands for its continuation on the part of the Provisional Government.
As a result, by the end of this year, the Caucasian Front had practically ceased to exist. And between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Erzincan truce was signed.
Plan
Introduction
1 The beginning of the war. balance of power
2 1914
3 1915
4 1916
5 1917
6 1918
Bibliography
Caucasian Front (World War I)
Introduction
The Caucasian Front is a combined-arms operational-strategic association of Russian troops in the Caucasian theater of operations (TVD) of the First World War (1914-1918). Officially ceased to exist in March 1918 in connection with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by Soviet Russia.
See also the article Caucasian army.
1. The beginning of the war. balance of power
On August 2, 1914, a German-Turkish alliance treaty was signed, according to which the Turkish army was actually placed under the leadership of the German military mission, and mobilization was announced in the country. However, at the same time, the Turkish government issued a declaration of neutrality. On August 10, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles, escaping from the pursuit of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. With the advent of these ships, not only the Turkish army, but also the fleet was under the command of the Germans. On September 9, the Turkish government announced to all powers that it had decided to abolish the regime of capitulations (the special legal status of foreign citizens).
However, most members of the Turkish government, including the Grand Vizier, still opposed the war. Then Minister of War Enver Pasha, together with the German command, started the war without the consent of the rest of the government, putting the country before a fait accompli. On October 29 and 30, 1914, the Turkish fleet fired on Sevastopol, Odessa, Feodosia and Novorossiysk (in Russia this event received the unofficial name "Sevastopol wake-up call"). On November 2, 1914, Russia declared war on Turkey. England and France followed on 5 and 6 November. Thus, the Caucasian front between Russia and Turkey arose on the Asian theater of operations.
Martial arts The generals of the Ottoman army and its organization were inferior in their level to the Entente, however, military operations on the Caucasian front were able to divert part of the Russian forces from the fronts in Poland and Galicia and ensure the victory of the German army, even at the cost of defeating the Ottoman Empire. It was for this purpose that Germany provided the Turkish army with the military-technical resources necessary for waging war, and the Ottoman Empire provided its human resources by using the 3rd Army on the Russian front, which at the initial stage was headed by the Minister of War Enver Pasha himself (Chief of Staff - German General F. Bronzart von Schellendorf). The 3rd Army, numbering about 100 infantry battalions, 35 cavalry squadrons and up to 250 guns, occupied positions from the Black Sea coast to Mosul, while the main part of the forces was concentrated on the left flank against the Russian Caucasian army.
For Russia, the Caucasian theater of operations was secondary compared to the Western Front - however, Russia should have been wary of Turkish attempts to regain control over the fortress of Kars and the Batumi port, which Turkey had lost in the late 1870s. Military operations on the Caucasian front took place mainly on the territory of Western Armenia, as well as Persia.
The war in the Caucasian theater of operations was waged by both sides in extremely difficult conditions for supplying troops - mountainous terrain and the lack of means of communication, especially railways, increased the importance of control over the Black Sea ports in this area (primarily Batum and Trabzon.
Before the start of hostilities, the Caucasian army was dispersed into two groups in accordance with two main operational directions:
· Kars direction (Kars - Erzerum) - approx. 6 divisions in the area of Olta - Sarykamysh,
· Erivan direction (Erivan - Alashkert) - approx. 2 divisions and cavalry in the Igdyr area.
The flanks were covered by small independent detachments of border guards, Cossacks and militia: the right flank was the direction along the Black Sea coast to Batum, and the left flank was against the Kurdish regions, where, with the announcement of mobilization, the Turks began to form Kurdish irregular cavalry.
With the outbreak of World War I, an Armenian volunteer movement unfolded in Transcaucasia. The Armenians pinned certain hopes on this war, counting on the liberation of Western Armenia with the help of Russian weapons. Therefore, the Armenian socio-political forces and national parties declared this war fair and declared their unconditional support for the Entente. The leadership of Turkey, for its part, tried to attract Western Armenians to its side and offered them to create volunteer detachments as part of the Turkish army and persuade the Eastern Armenians to joint action against Russia. These plans, however, were not destined to come true.
The Armenian National Bureau in Tiflis was engaged in the creation of Armenian squads (volunteer detachments). Total number Armenian volunteers amounted to 25 thousand people under the command of well-known leaders of the Armenian national movement on the territory of Western Armenia. The first four volunteer detachments joined the ranks active army in various sectors of the Caucasian front already in November 1914, Armenian volunteers distinguished themselves in the battles for Van, Dilman, Bitlis, Mush, Erzerum and other cities of Western Armenia. At the end of 1915 - beginning of 1916. Armenian volunteer detachments were disbanded, and on their basis, rifle battalions were created as part of the Russian units, which participated in hostilities until the end of the war.
In November 1914, the Russian army, having crossed the Turkish border, launched an offensive in a strip of up to 350 km, but, having encountered enemy resistance, was forced to go on the defensive.
At the same time, Turkish troops invaded Russian territory. On November 5 (18), 1914, Russian troops left the city of Artvin and retreated towards Batum. With the assistance of the Adjarians, who rebelled against the Russian authorities, the entire Batumi region came under the control of Turkish troops, with the exception of the Mikhailovskaya fortress (fortified area) and the Upper Adzhar section of the Batumi district, as well as the city of Ardagan of the Kars region and a significant part of the Ardagan district. In the occupied territories, the Turks, with the assistance of the Adjarians, carried out massacres of the Armenian and Greek population.
In December 1914 - January 1915, during the Sarykamysh operation, the Russian Caucasian army stopped the advance of the 3rd Turkish army under the command of Enver Pasha on Kars, and then utterly defeated them.
Since January, in connection with the removal of A. Z. Myshlaevsky, N. N. Yudenich took command.
In February-April 1915, the Russian and Turkish armies put themselves in order. The fighting was local. By the end of March, the Russian army cleared southern Adzharia and the entire Batumi region of the Turks.
The Russian army had the task of driving the Turks out of the Batum region and conducting an offensive in Persian Azerbaijan in order to support Russian influence in Persia. The Turkish army, fulfilling the plan of the German-Turkish command to deploy a “jihad” (holy war of Muslims against the infidels), sought to involve Persia and Afghanistan in an open action against Russia and England and, by advancing in the Erivan direction, to seize the Baku oil-bearing region from Russia.
At the end of April, cavalry detachments of the Turkish army invaded Iran.
Already in the first period of hostilities, the Turkish authorities began to evict the Armenian population in the front line. Anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. Western Armenians were accused of mass desertion from the Turkish army, of organizing sabotage and uprisings in the rear of the Turkish troops. About 60,000 Armenians, drafted into the Turkish army at the beginning of the war, were subsequently disarmed, sent to work in the rear, and then destroyed. Since April 1915, under the guise of deportation of Armenians from the front line, the Turkish authorities began the actual destruction of the Armenian population. In a number of places, the Armenian population offered organized armed resistance to the Turks. In particular, a Turkish division was sent to suppress the uprising in the city of Van, blockading the city.
To help the rebels, the 4th Caucasian Army Corps of the Russian army went on the offensive. The Turks retreated, the Russian army captured important settlements. Russian troops cleared a vast territory from the Turks, advancing 100 km. The fighting in this area went down in history under the name of the Battle of Van. The arrival of the Russian troops saved thousands of Armenians from inevitable death, who, after the temporary withdrawal of the Russian troops, moved to Eastern Armenia.
In July, Russian troops repulsed the offensive of Turkish troops in the area of Lake Van.
During the Alashkert operation (July-August 1915), Russian troops defeated the enemy, disrupted the offensive planned by the Turkish command in the Kars direction and facilitated the actions of the British troops in Mesopotamia.
In the second half of the year, hostilities spread to the territory of Persia.
In October-December 1915, the commander of the Caucasian Army, General Yudenich, carried out a successful Hamadan operation, which prevented Persia from entering the war on the side of Germany. On October 30, Russian troops landed in the port of Anzali (Persia), by the end of December they defeated the pro-Turkish armed groups and took control of the territory of Northern Persia, securing the left flank of the Caucasian army.
The Turkish command did not have a clear war plan for 1916, Enver Pasha even suggested that the German command transfer the Turkish troops liberated after the Dardanelles operation to the Isonzo or Galicia. The actions of the Russian army resulted in two main operations: Erzurum, Trebizond, and further advance to the west, deep into the Ottoman Empire.
In December 1915 - February 1916. the Russian army carried out a successful Erzurum offensive operation, as a result of which on January 20 (February 2) Russian troops approached Erzurum. The assault on the fortress began on January 29 (February 11). On February 3 (16), Erzurum was taken, the Turkish army retreated, losing up to 50% of its personnel and almost all artillery. The pursuit of the retreating Turkish troops continued until the front line stabilized 70-100 km west of Erzurum.
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