With the collapse of the Baku Sovnarkom, Bolshevik military units left the front and, to add to the city's distress, Bicherakov's Cossack troops abandoned their positions and rode into the North Caucasus. Taking advantage of the situation, Mürsel Pasha on August 5 struck toward the centre of Baku, whose armed units were now predominantly Armenian. The struggle had once again turned into an Armeno-Moslem contest. The defenders held firm and, engaging in a flanking operation, compelled Mürsel to retreat. The disappointed and demoralised Turkish division was constrained to await reinforcements, already in transit from Alexandropol. The battle of August 5, 1918, cost the Armenians several hundred men, including Murad of Sivas, the partisan leader who faced the Third Army from Erzinjan to Baku. 22
On the eve of Mürsel's attack, the first British contingent, led by Colonel C. B. Stokes, disembarked at Baku. Excitement in the city was great, but disillusionment was greater. Instead of the several thousand troops anticipated, fewer than a hundred soldiers came ashore. By August 17, when General Dunsternville arrived with the last unit, the British garrison was raised to barely fifteen hundred combatants. 23 Indeed, Baku's non-Communist leaders had cause to question the wisdom of their decision to invite the Dunsterforce. That action had prompted the withdrawal of at least an equal number of Bolshevik troops and was to incur the continued wrath of condemnation of the Russian government. The situation was further aggravated by the lack of rapport between the British Commander and the Centro-Caspian Dictatorship. Dunsterville and other British officers have roundly chastised the Baku government, its military strategy, and the cowardice and ill discipline of its armed forces. Conversely, the British have been charged with selfishness, deception, and treachery. Even if the suspicious partners had worked in perfect harmony, it is highly improbable that their strength would have been sufficient to withstand the joint Azerbaijani-Ottoman assault that was being prepared. 24
With the arrival of the British, Baku's Bolsheviks decided to quit the city. Seventeen ships loaded with men of the Red Army and enormous quantities of military equipment sailed for Astrakhan on August 14. Accusing the Bolsheviks for treason, primarily for depriving the Baku defenders of supplies, he Dictatorship ordered loyal vessels of the Caspian fleet to block the Bolshevik exodus. Three days later all but one of the fleeing ships were back in the port and the former Sovnarkom members imprisoned. 25 Events in Baku were watched closely by Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, and by the Armenian suppliants in each of these cities. Entrance of the British onto the scene complicated the situation. It embarrassed the Armenians envoys and threatened to nullify the nearly completed German-Russian supplementary treaty. Furthermore, it gave credence to the warnings of Enver Pasha and weakened German determination to contain the Turks.
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