Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/235

Rh

Capture of Erzerum. Stagnation followed on the Erzerum front for more than a year after the battle of Sarikamish. But during the spring and summer of 1915 a Russian army, operating in the neighbourhood of Lake Van, invaded and occupied the greater part of the Turkish vilayets of Van and Bitlis, peopled largely by Armenians. This southern campaign, however, had no serious importance except to distract Turkish attention and save an Armenian population. The one line of military advance from Trans- Caucasia into Asia Minor lay through Erzerum; and Russia was preparing for an unexpected spring upon this eastern bulwark of Anatolia. A great Russian army, including Siberian and Armenian troops, was concentrated within striking distance of the Erzerum position in the middle of winter. It advanced on Jan. n 1916, and two weeks later had reached the outposts of the fortress, a march of some 80 m., with guns and supplies, through deep snow, at high altitudes, in temper- atures often below zero. On Feb. 14-16 various commanding mountain forts, the main defences of Erzerum, some of them 9,000 ft. above sea-level, were taken by storm. The city was captured on Feb. 16 its fall a resounding disaster for the Ottoman Empire.

Invasion of Anatolia. When the spring of 1916 came the Russians continued their operations westward, and by the end of July had captured the Black Sea port of Trebizond and the important military position of Erzinjan. They had reached a line about 30 m. west of Erzinjan, stretching from the Black Sea to the Euphrates and thence eastward to Lake Van and the Persian frontier, a line embracing the chief areas of Armenian population in Asia Minor. The line so held was nearly the same as that subsequently awarded by President Wilson as the western and southern frontiers of Armenia.

The Russian Collapse. But this was Russia's farthest. She was weakening at home, where symptoms of upheaval were already appearing. On March 14 1917, a Provisional Govern- ment was proclaimed; the Tsar abdicated the following day; in September Russia was a republic, and on Nov. 17 Lenin and Trotsky seized, the reins of power. The Treaty of Brest Litovsk, in which Germany imposed terms on her beaten and exhausted enemy, was signed on March 3 1918. The armed forces of Russia engaged in the war in western Asia lost their fighting value in 1917. The fleet at Sevastopol mutinied in June of that year and removed its officers; and the armies in Asia Minor were in process of disintegration at the same time. When the treaty of Brest Litovsk was signed these armies were only held together by the great personal influence of the Grand Duke Nicholas, viceroy and commander-in-chief in Caucasia, but had already voluntarily retired behind the Russo-Turkish frontier of 1914.

Treaty of Brest Litovsk. In the Treaty of Brest Litovsk Turkish claims were not overlooked, in fact the treaty gave fulfilment to some of the wider ambitions which had developed in the Young Turk party. It provided, in effect, that between Russia and Turkey the frontiers should be those existing prior to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8; under this provision, therefore, the old provinces of Arda,han, Kars and Batum were to be returned to Turkey. Of these, Ardahan and Kars formed part of Russian Armenia, or Erivan.

Even prior to the signing of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk Turkey had been able to take advantage of the growing weakness of Russia. As early as Aug. 1916 she had recaptured the towns of Mush and Bitlis. But immediately after the signature of the Treaty she pushed her troops forward and between March 12 1918 and April 27 reoccupied in rapid succession Erzerum, Sarikamish, Van, Batum and Kars. The liberation of Turkish Armenia by Russia had failed, and the disaster involved the return to Turkish rule of a large part of Russian Armenia. The only hope for the Armenian people now lay in themselves in whatever of wise prevision, unity and sacrifice they could command.

Federal Republic of Trans-Caucasia. Steps in the right direction had, indeed, already been taken. The approaching collapse of Russia became apparent to Trans-Caucasian people

early in 1917. On Sept. 20 1917 a Council of the Trans-Caucasian Peoples of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia assembled at Tiflis, proclaimed Trans-Caucasia a Federal Republic, and formed a Provisional Government. When Turkey, after the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, proceeded to overrun western Trans- Caucasia this Government attempted to negotiate a peace but found the endeavour fruitless. Not only were the Turkish leaders obdurate but the republic had no real unity among its parts. Azerbaijan, with a Moslem population, though desirous enough of maintaining its independence, saw no great danger in Turkey recovering lost provinces at the expense of the Christian Armenians of Erivan; Erivan feared veiled annexation by Georgia under the guise of federation; and all three peoples were widely at variance upon questions of territory to which each thought itself entitled.

On April 13 1918 the Federal Republic broke off relations with Turkey and declared war, two days later the Turks occupied Batum, and on April 22 the Council of the Republic decided to proclaim its independence, but also to resume negotiations with Turkey for peace. With such waverings of policy the republic was likely to be short-lived.

The end came even sooner than was expectedl On May 26 1918 the three states of the republic fell apart, each declaring its independence as a separate republic, and organizing a national Government of its own.

Armenian Republic of Erivan. We now reach the point where the story of Armenia, hitherto the story of a dispersed people without a country, crystallizes into a story of an inde- pendent Armenian state a state born to misfortune and blood- shed, surrounded by enemies, and inaccessible to its friends, a state whose survival and growth are matters more for hope than for confidence.

The territory of the republic of Erivan, excluding the districts in dispute with the adjoining republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan, comprised the two Russian provinces of Erivan and Kars, possessing an area of some 17,500 sq. miles. By the census of 1916 these provinces contained, in round figures, a population of 1,510,000 of whom 795,000 were Armenians, 575,000 Moslems, and 140,000 of various other races. But the effective territory and population of the Erivan Republic were even less at the time its independence was declared, for nearly one-third of its whole area was in Turkish occupation under the terms of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk. De facto recognition, however, was accorded the republic by the Allied Powers.

Outside the confines of the state so indicated lay other ter- ritories claimed by it, but claimed also by Georgia or Azerbaijan. Rather more than 2,000 sq. m. were thus in dispute with Georgia, and some 12,000 with Azerbaijan. The census of 1916 gave the disputed areas a population of about 900,000 equally divided between Armenians and Moslems. Part of the area claimed both by Erivan and Azerbaijan were the mountainous districts of Zangezur and Karabagh, peopled by Armenian highlanders, perhaps the finest representatives of their race. These, however, were separated from Erivan by an area in which a Moslem population predominated.

At best the territory occupied by the republic was an unfruitful region of treeless mountains and valleys containing little cultivated land, few resources, and a people reduced to the edge of poverty. Even in time of peace it had raised barely sufficient food for the needs of its thrifty population, but now when 400,000 refugees had poured into it, chiefly from Turkish Armenia, the question of supplies became more and more acute. The existence of the republic, indeed, was eventually affected by the difficulty of obtaining supplies, not only of food but of munitions and fuel.

But the republic was faced with many other difficulties, some external, others internal; the greater number immeasurably intensified by the country's unfortunate geographical position. Erivan was, in fact, an Asiatic Switzerland, though far more remote from the sea and more inaccessible. The only line of railway communication towards the western world ran through Georgian territory to the Black Sea port of Batum, the only roadway to the sea was also through Georgia to Batum. And