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Assessment of the Losses
On June 6, Kachaznouni, Khatisian, and Papadjanian returned to Tiflis and presented the treaty of Batum to the National Council. Assessment of the losses showed that Transcaucasia had been sheared of over 20 percent of its territory on which nearly 19 percent of its total population had lived in 1914. 52 Nearly three-quarters of the ceded territory had been wrenched from the Kars oblast and Yerevan guberniia as shown by the following figures:
| Region |
Territory lost (in sq. km) |
| Batum oblast 53 |
|
| Batum okrug |
2,240 |
| Artvin okrug |
2,080 |
| |
|
| Tiflis guberniia |
|
| Akhalkalak uezd |
1,840 |
| Akhaltsikh uezd |
1,760 |
| |
|
| Kars oblast 54 |
|
| Kars okrug |
3,600 |
| Kaghizman okrug |
2,720 |
| Ardahan okrug |
3,360 |
| Olti okrug |
1,840 |
| |
|
| Yerevan guberniia |
|
| Yerevan uezd |
1,120 |
| Alexandropol uezd |
1,200 |
| Etchmiadzin uezd |
1,440 |
| Surmalu uezd |
2,240 |
| Sharur-Daralagiaz uezd |
960 |
| Nakhichevan uezd |
2,400 |
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had awarded the Ottoman Empire nearly 16,000 square kilometres and six hundred thousand inhabitants of Transcaucasia. By the Batum treaties, Turkey gained an additional 12,800 square kilometres populated by six hundred and fifty thousand people, over two-thirds of whom were Armenians. 55 The national complexion of the affected uezds was as follows: 56
| Ceded uezd or part thereof |
Georgian |
Moslem |
Armenian |
Russian |
| Akhalkalak |
8,000 |
8,000 |
64,000 57 |
8,000 |
| Akhaltsikh |
25,000 |
18,000 |
27,000 |
540 |
| Surmalu |
- |
66,000 |
30,000 |
- |
| Alexandropol |
420 |
3,000 |
173,000 |
2,000 |
| Etchmiadzin |
- |
42,000 |
76,000 |
400 |
| Yerevan |
- |
48,000 |
30,000 |
1,000 |
| Sharur-Daralagiaz Nakhichevan 59 |
- |
12,000 |
5,000 |
60 |
The population in the remaining districts of the Yerevan guberniia, that is, in the Republic of Armenia, was composed of approximately three hundred thousand of the two million Russian Armenians and at least an equal number of refugees from Western Armenia and the regions surrendered at Brest-Litovsk and Batum. Even in this pitifully minute area, there were nearly a hundred thousand Moslems. 60
Before Khatisian's delegation had departed from Batum, Vehib Pasha had given his promise that every effort would be made to exempt Armenians remaining in the ceded territories from military conscription. If unforeseen events should necessitate their services, these Armenians would not under any circumstances be removed from their native districts. Moreover, all refugees from areas between the Brest and Batum boundaries would be from the Kars and Batum oblasts must be denied that privilege. 61 Having received this information, the Armenian National Council named a special commission to meet in Alexandropol with Kiazim Karabekir to finalise details for repatriation, exchange of prisoners, Turkish withdrawal from the Gharakilisa area, and Ottoman utilisation of transportation routes over Armenia. Despite the commission's repeated requests, Karabekir would sanction neither the return of the refugees nor the withdrawal of Ottoman forces from the Pambak district of northern Armenia. 62 He and his commanding officer, General Essad Pasha, complained bitterly about violations of the Batum Treaty, as Armenian armed bands and many villagers in the ceded territories, refusing to submit peaceably to Ottoman rule, attacked Turkish officials and sabotaged the military efforts of the Central Powers. 63 The Alexandropol discussions led to no agreement, but by mid-July Ottoman troops in the southern areas of the Yerevan guberniia finally attained the boundaries established by the Treaty of Batum. Turkish cannons were installed 6.4 kilometres from Etchmiadzin and 6.4 from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. 64
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52) A. B. Kadishev, "Interventsiia I grazhdanskaia voina v Zakavkaz'e" (Moscow, 1960), p. 64; D. S. Zavriev, "K noveisheri istorii severo-vostochnykh vilaetov Turtsii" (Tbilisi, 1947), p. 71.
53) Figures for the Batum oblast and Tbilisi guberniia have been complied from information supplied by D. S. Zavriev, "K noveisheri istorii severo-vostochnykh vilaetov Turtsii" (Tbilisi, 1947), p. 70, and "Entsiklopedicheskii Slovar'" (7th ed. Moscow, 1909-1926).
54) Figures for the Kars oblast and Yerevan guberniia have been compiled from D. Ananun, "Rousahayeri hasarakakan zargatsoume, III, 1901-1918" [The Social Development of the Russian Armenians: 1901-1918] (Venice, 1926), p. 685, and Archives of the Republic of Armenia Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference [now integrated into the archives of Dashnaktsoutyoun, Boston, Massachusetts], File 1/1 and File 74/1, "H. H. Patvirakoutyoun yev Divanagitakan Nerkayatsoutyoun Tajkastanoum, 1914-1918 t.t." [Rep. of Arm. Delegation and Diplomatic Representation in Turkey, 1914-1918].
55) B. H. Lalabekian, "V. I. Lenine yev sovetakan kargeri hastatoumn ou amrapndoumn Andrkovkasoum" [V. I. Lenin and the Establishment and Strengthening of Soviet Order in Transcaucasia] (Yerevan, 1961), p. 194; D. S. Zavriev, "K noveisheri istorii severo-vostochnykh vilaetov Turtsii" (Tbilisi, 1947), p. 70; A. B. Kadishev, "Interventsiia I grazhdanskaia voina v Zakavkaz'e" (Moscow, 1960), p. 64; Georgian SSR Central State Archives of the October Revolution, Fund 13, work 26, p. 42, in A. M. Poghosian, "Sotsial-tntesakan haraberoutyounnere Karsi marzoum, 1878-1920" [The Social-Economic Relations in the Province of Kars, 1878-1920] (Yerevan, 1961), p. 307.
56) D. S. Zavriev, "K noveisheri istorii severo-vostochnykh vilaetov Turtsii" (Tbilisi, 1947), p. 70.
57) Most Armenian and pre-revolutionary Russian sources give the Armenian population of Akhalkalak at that time as more than 80,000.
59) The Soviet studies consulted do not account for the six-sevenths of Nakhichevan ceded to Turkey. Figures in the Statistics in the United States National Archives, "Record Group 256: Records of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace", 867B.00/10, give the entire uezd 136,000 inhabitants, of whom 81,000 were Moslem and 54,000 Armenian. Using Russian statistics of 1914, Artashes Abeghian substantiates this information. Consult Abeghian's "Menk yev mer harevannere - Azgayin kaghakakanoutian khndirner" [We and Our Neighbours - Problems of National Policy], Hairenik Amsagir, VI (February, 1928), 99. By the time Turkish forces actually occupied the area, most Christians had already fled.
60) Archives of the Republic of Armenia Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference [now integrated into the archives of Dashnaktsoutyoun, Boston, Massachusetts], File 107/6 and 100/1. Ds. Aghayan, "Hoktemberian revoliutsian yev hai zhoghovourdi azatagroume" [The October Revolution and the Liberation of the Armenian People] (Yerevan, 1957)p. 195, shows the distribution of refugees in Armenia during 1918 as follows:
Yerevan - 75,000
Daralagiaz - 36,000
Ashtarak - 30,000
Bash Aparan - 35,000
Akhta-Elenokva - 22,000
Etchmiadzin - 70,000
Bashgarni - 15,000
Gharakilisa - 16,000
Novo Bayazid - 38,000
Dilijan - 13,000
61) Archives of the Republic of Armenia Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference [now integrated into the archives of Dashnaktsoutyoun, Boston, Massachusetts], File 74/1 and 100/1.
62) Hovakim Melikian, "Arian janaparhov" [On the Bloody Path], Hairenik Amsagir, III (November, 1924) (July, 1925), pp. 94-96; S. Vratsian, "Hayastani Hanrapetoutyoun" [Republic of Armenia] (2nd ed., Beirut, 1958), p. 144.
63) Armenian SSR Central State Historical Archives, Fund 68/200, work 79, p. 67, and work 33, p. 4, in Kh. H. Badalian, "Germana-turkakan okupantnere Hayastanoum 1918 tvakanin" [The Germano-Turkish Occupants in Armenia, 1918] (Yerevan, 1962), pp. 210-211, 235-236. Also, work 20 and work 79, in E. K. Sargsian, "Ekspansionistskaia politika Osmanskoi imperii v Zakavkaz'e nakanune I v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny" (Yerevan, 1962), pp. 403-405. For the role of Essad Pasha, see pp. 204-205, above.
64) Archives of the Republic of Armenia Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference [now integrated into the archives of Dashnaktsoutyoun, Boston, Massachusetts], File 1/1, Report of March 25, 1919; Arshak Djamalian, "Hai-vratsakan knjire" [The Armeno-Georgian Entanglement], Hairenik Amsagir, VI (September, 1928), 119-120; General G. Korganoff, "La participation des Arméniens à la guerre mondiale sur le front du Caucase, 1914-1918" (Paris, 1927), pp. 170-171.
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