Understandably, the, Armenian leaders were wary of the October 30 terms. The Turks had not been compelled to vacate Kars and Ardahan, as might have been expected. Not even the 1914 Russo-Turkish frontier had been restored. No effective provisions had been included in the document for supervision to assure a rapid Turkish demobilisation. As for the Western Armenian provinces, what was meant by "the Allies reserve to themselves the right to occupy any part of them"? The statement seemed to imply that Turkey would be permitted to retain control there. Moreover, how could there be "disorders" when the entire native Armenian population had been deported to massacred? There was absolutely nothing to force the Ottomans to leave the Armenian Plateau. Although the war had ended in Allied victory and Armenia had often been dubbed "the Little Ally," the shortcomings and dangers of the Mudros Armistice seemed to cast doubt upon both facts.
Had the Armenians been aware of several orders issued by the Ottoman War Ministry during the last week of hostilities, they would have had reasons for even greater concern. Izzet Pasha had commanded the Turkish units to withdraw to the Brest-Litovsk boundaries and had so apprised the Armenian and Georgian representatives. He nevertheless issued a circular on October 27 permitting all Turkish officers to enter the service of the North Caucasus or Azerbaijani republics. 85 A month later, when Izzet had relinquished his post of Grand Vizier to Tewfik Pasha and the Ministry of War to Abdullah, this order was revoked and all Ottoman divisions were recalled to Kars. The command was ineffective, however, for already on November 4 Nuri Pasha had informed Turkish soldiers in the Caucasus of an agreement with the government of Azerbaijan. All Ottoman enlisted men and officers who so desired could join the Azerbaijani Army and become Azerbaijani citizens. They would retain their current rank, and if they were eligible for promotion, the Azerbaijani government would confer upon them a still higher rank. Each officer was to be granted two months' furlough every year with pay in advance. Turkish soldiers who accepted the offer were to serve for at least a year, but should they be forced to leave for reasons of health, compensation would be made, and should the Azerbaijani Army annul the contract, six months' pay would be granted. In addition, certain provisions would be made for the soldiers' families in Turkey. 86 Hundreds of Ottoman instructors, officers, and soldiers remained in Azerbaijan throughout its independent existence and became the object of numerous Armenian complaints and accusations.
By the beginning of December, 1918, the regular Ottoman divisions had vacated the Yerevan guberniia, leaving the abandoned territory completely denuded. A few hundred more Armenians met death in this last Ottoman wartime operation. Some of the loot was transferred to the southern districts of the guberniia where Turkish officers and troops voluntarily remained to organise and direct the efforts of the Moslem-populated Araxes Valley in resisting submission to the Armenian government. For two years these askiars were to aid their coreligionists and to strive for the area's annexation to Turkey or Azerbaijan. Local councils, shouras, organised just 16 kilometres from Yerevan, remained resolutely hostile to the Armenian Republic. During 1919 the lands to the south of the Armenian capital were to serve as a passageway between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and in 1920 their importance vaulted, for it was across this route that Mustafa Kemal and Lenin were to extend the hand of friendship.
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