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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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The Sovnarkom-Ottoman Alternation and the Fall of the Ittihadist Government

Turkish conquest of Baku was obviously a flagrant breach of the Brest-Litovsk Supplementary Treaty. Foreign Affairs Commissar Chicherin accused the Germans of reneging on pledges to retrain the Turks and prohibit their entry to Baku. The Soviet note drew swift retort from the German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who reproached Russia for violating the Supplementary Treaty clause proscribing slander. 38 The Berlin-Moscow entente of less than a month began to crumble. On September 20, Chicherin instructed Ioffe to protest in person and to deliver to Ottoman representatives in Berlin a message tantamount to abrogation of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. In that note, the Sovnarkom assailed the Turks for atrocities perpetrated while advancing through Kars, Ardahan, and Batum, and denounced the ludicrous plebiscite conducted in the three sanjaks, purportedly in compliance with a Brest-Litovsk stipulation. 39 In further violation of that treaty, the Ottoman Army had struck into the Caucasus. The Turkish claim that the aggressors at Baku were irregular bands was clearly contrary to fact. Because the Constantinople government had acted in bad faith and had schemed to deceive Russia, the Sovnarkom was compelled to regard the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as never having existed. 40

Though divulging the contents of this note, Ioffe deferred presenting it officially in order to allow the Turks time to make concessions. Striving to avoid an open confrontation with Russia, Talaat instructed the Ottoman ambassador to Berlin, Rifat Pasha, to negotiate with Ioffe. During the ensuing talks for a Caucasus arrangement, the Soviet diplomat demanded immediate withdrawal of Turkish officials and armed forces, both regular and irregular, from lands east of the Breast boundaries. Troops of the Russian Republic were to occupy the Caucasus, and the Sovnarkom was to be indemnified for damages resulting from the Ottoman march toward Baku. Prior to leaving the German capital, Talaat promised that, after conferring with the Ottoman cabinet, he would reply to the ultimatum through the person of Rifat Pasha. On October 3, Rifat informed Ioffe that the Ottoman government had agreed to honour the Brest-Litovsk boundary and withdraw its divisions from the Caucasus. However, because the Constantinople government did not state specifically that all irregulars would also be recalled, Ioffe chose to consider his ultimatum not accepted in toto and, on the same day, delivered Chicherin's September 20 denunciation of Turkey. 41 By the beginning of October it must have been obvious to the Soviet rulers that the Central Powers would soon fall, and it can be assumed that Ioffe's moves were made in anticipation of a formal annulment of Brest-Litovsk. The "Tilsit Peace was about to be smashed.

The Soviet tactic elicited a sharp protest from Ottoman Foreign Minister Nessimi Bey. On October 6 he wired Moscow to express astonishment at the Sovnarkom's derogatory statements and to point out that Turkish action had been neither in bad faith nor illegal. The Transcaucasian government had itself repudiated the Brest boundaries, and, as for the plebiscite in the three sanjaks, Russia was not in a position to judge its validity. Furthermore, Turkish operations against Baku had been necessitated by the British tentacles which had enwrapped the area. Soviet Russia, having now gained the upper hand, refuted Nessimi's allegations on October 10. Chicherin contended that the provisions of Brest-Litovsk were flouted by Turkey from the day the treaty had been signed, that the so-called Tiflis government did not represent the masses of Transcaucasia, that even Moslems had deprecated the irregularities of the plebiscite, and that the Ottoman drive toward Baku had begun long before a single British soldier approached the Apsheron Peninsula. The Russian Foreign Commissar added that, despite Ottoman pledges to vacate the Caucasus, not a single district had been cleared not had any such preparations been observed. Chicherin did not close the door to an accord, however, for he suggested that, were the Turkish troops to quit the illegally occupied lands, the Russian government might then consider ways of preserving the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 42 To be safe, Soviet Russia waited until November 13, two days after Germany had capitulated, before formally annulling the controversial treaty of March 3, 1918. 43

Even before Chicherin's October 10 note, momentous changes had occurred in Constantinople. Returning from Berlin, Talaat told the Central Committee of the Ittihad party that Turkish interests were served by the September 23 protocol. He also notified the Armenian delegates that recognition of their republic was assured. Talaat must have been aware, however, that the days of his cabinet were numbered. Bulgaria had signed an armistice on September 29, and four days later Tsar Ferdinand abdicated. On October 1 Emir Feisal had entered Damascus with his Arab forces, and British troops pushed dangerously close to Anatolia. Constantinople itself seemed threatened by the prospect of an Allied march through the Balkans. The Central Alliance was disintegrating. The war government of the Ittihad Triumvirate was discredited, and on October 8 the Grand Vizier tendered his resignation. 44 Turkey took immediate steps to pull out of the war, as Ahmed Izzet Pasha, former second Army Commander, succeeded Talaat on October 13 with a "peace cabinet." 45 Two days earlier, Admiral Arthur Calthorpe of the British Mediterranean Fleet set sail for the island of Lemnos to be in a position to negotiate. On October 20, General Charles Townshend, a prisoner in Turkey since the battle of Kut-el-Amara, was dispatched to Port Mudros by Izzet to act as an intermediary. Ten days later the Armistice of Mudros terminated Ottoman participation in the Great World War. 46