Berlin was especially sensitive to the Baku problem, for negotiations with the Sovnarkom concerning the fate of the region were far advanced. Germany, having lost the military initiative on the western front, was sorely in need of the resources, particularly the oil, of the Caucasus. Soviet Russia was also hard pressed, as the anti-Bolshevik tide had engulfed most of the border provinces and was even threatening the heartlands. Thus, a Russo-German rapprochement was pursued by Count von Mirbach in Moscow and by Soviet representative Adolf Ioffe in Berlin. During talks for a supplementary treaty to Brest-Litovsk, Germany acknowledged Russian suzerainty over Baku on condition that some of the oil output be placed at Berlin's disposal and that the Sovnarkom assent to Germany's special position in Georgia. Stepan Shahoumian, Chairman of Baku's Council of People's Commissars, was informed of these proceedings by Stalin, who stressed that, though certain concessions to Germany concerning Georgia would be granted, the Berlin government would be required to maintain a hands-off policy toward Armenia and Azerbaijan. 8 Thus, while German Foreign Ministry promised Ohandjanian to help Armenia by compelling the Turks or evacuate the Yerevan and Tiflis guberniias, it also assured the Sovnarkom that it would neither recognise the Armenian Republic not interfere in the affairs of southern and eastern Transcaucasia.
The secret Russo-German parleys were soon common knowledge. The alarmed Armenian representatives in Moscow and Berlin berated the irresponsible and illogical Russian strategy. In the Kremlin, Zavriev and Nazariants argued that Soviet failure to recognise Armenia would prove disastrous to both governments, but their voices went unheeded, for the Sovnarkom was no longer tolerant of non-Bolshevik Armenian organisations and representatives in Russia. The antagonism increased after the Russian Left Revolutionary collaborators broke with the Bolsheviks and, accusing the Sovnarkom of betraying the Revolution, assassinated Count Wilhelm von Mirbach, the representative of "German imperialism." Together with hundreds of other non-Communists, many Armenian leaders were arrested and imprisoned in the Bolshevik reaction to this sabotage. 9 Fortunately for Lenin, who hurriedly apologised to Germany and sanctioned the payment of a large indemnity, the Kaiser's government chose to continue talks for supplementary agreement despite the "Mirbach incident." 10
In Berlin, Ohandjanian laboured to convince Ioffe of the justice and validity of Armenian aspirations. The Soviet delegate, expressing complete sympathy for the Armenians, promised to relay Ohandjanian's messages to the Sovnarkom. On August 8, in one such communiqué, Ohandjanian beseeched and demanded Russian recognition of Armenia. "Peace without annexation" and "self-determination" were excellent principles in the abstract and should logically assured the Armenian people of tranquillity and cultural progress, but, as it happened, abuse of those mottoes had resulted in unparalleled tragedy. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, to which Russia was a party, had not only betrayed Western Armenia but had also abandoned Kars, Ardahan, and Batum in the "supposed name of self-determination." To make matters worse, Russia, by pledging to disperse Armenian military units in those areas, had undercut efforts for self-defence. Was this the application of the Sovnarkom's "Decree about Western Armenia"? Ohandjanian deplored the fact that there were no longer any Armenians left in Western Armenia and that only a few districts of Eastern Armenia had been left intact. To salvage this last segment of land, an Armenian government had been created, but Azerbaijan, bolstered by Turkey, and Georgia, supported by Germany, were casting greedy glances at even this pitiful state. Under such circumstances it would seem natural, continued Ohandjanian, for the Russian Republic to give Armenia a bit more stature by granting recognition. Yet the truth was that this step had not been taken; on the contrary, if the proposed pact with Germany were accepted by the Sovnarkom, Russia's only ally in the Caucasus would be crushed. "Thus, let Russia now aid Armenia by acknowledging her existence. Let the Russian Republic protest formally the violation of Brest by Turkey; let it send representatives to the Constantinople conference to exact recognition of the Armenian Republic and to defend your and our mutual interests." 11
In part, the Sovnarkom had already fulfilled Ohandjanian's request. On May 31, Chicherin instructed Ioffe to protest vociferously the Turkish breach of Brest-Litovsk and the illegal use of the Transcaucasian railways to transport toward Baku. 12 In reply, the German government reassured the Sovnarkom that effective measures to restrain the Turks were taken. Both parties realised that Turkish occupation of Baku would void the understanding for which they were striving. In the Turkish camp, Enver Pasha aware of the threat posed by the negotiations of Ioffe and Paul von Hintze, successor to von Kühlmann, spurred his armies eastward to confront both Russia and Germany with a fait accompli. At the end of June, Nuri Bey's Islamic units launched an offensive against Baku's Red Army, which had just driven westward 160 kilometres from the Apsheron Peninsula.
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