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Transcaucasia's Inconclusive Response to Ottoman Proposals
Lieutenant General I. Z. Odishelidze received from Third Army Commander Vehib Pasha a communiqué of import in mid-January. Enver Pasha through his supreme officer on the Eastern front was inquiring about the possibility of establishing cordial relations with the "independent government of Caucasia." Permission was requested for a Turkish delegation to visit Tiflis to negotiate a mutual, just peace. 66 When the Commissariat received Vehib's message along with Odishelidze's veering report on the following day, it was obliged to reflect upon the perplexing question of whom and what the Transcaucasian government represented. Having assumed the functions of a de facto administration, that government continued to insist on the inseparability of Russia and Transcaucasia. Ostensibly, its functions were limited to preventing anarchy, safeguarding the military front, and resolving strictly regional matters. The Commissariat stubbornly maintained that the Constituent Assembly alone was authorised to define the relationship between the central government and the border provinces and to conclude peace for all Russia. Although the Commissariat had participated in negotiating the Erzinjan Truce in December, the act had been officially concluded in the name of the Russian Caucasus Army. Driven to decisions and actions reserved for sovereign states, while at the same time denying its independent status, the temporary government of Transcaucasia was riddled with inconsistencies. The Commissariat was painfully aware that in fact Transcaucasia had been severed from Russia, but that, as an independent, feeble ship of state thrown upon the turbulent waters of the World War, the Russian revolutions and civil war, and the horrifying mirages of Enver Pasha, it was destined to utter ruin. Thus, when Vehib's communiqué was relayed to Tiflis, the Commissariat found it impossible to respond clearly and decisively.
The problem was taken to the Regional Centre of Soviets on January 17. There, Zhordania's resolution that only the Constituent Assembly could authorise peace negotiations was adopted. As soon as action had been taken in Petrograd, the Ottoman government would be informed. Meanwhile, the Soviet Regional Centre suggested advisory conferences with other governments in Russia, including the Sovnarkom, to discuss the matter. 67 Within a few hours, however, Transcaucasia had to face the distressing fact that the Constituent Assembly had been dispersed and Vehib Pasha still awaited an answer.
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66) "Velikaia Oktiabr'skaia sotsialisticheskaia revoliutsiia: Dokumenty i materialy", ed. by A. L. Sidorov, et al. II (Moscow, 1963), pp. 11-15; General G. Korganoff, "La participation des Arméniens à la guerre mondiale sur le front du Caucase, 1914-1918" (Paris, 1927), p. 103; United States National Archives, "Record Group 84: Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State", C64(C8).1, Class 711, Gegechkori to Villari, January 17, 1918 [old style].
67) "Velikaia Oktiabr'skaia sotsialisticheskaia revoliutsiia: Dokumenty i materialy", ed. by A. L. Sidorov, et al. II (Moscow, 1963), pp. 25-27.
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