User:Mnuan/sandboxGeorgia–Kars war

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Georgia–Kars war
Date30 January – 20 April 1919
Location
Meskheti
Result

Georgian victory

Belligerents
 Democratic Republic of Georgia Kars Republic
Commanders and leaders
Democratic Republic of Georgia Giorgi Kvinitadze Server-Beg Jakeli
Units involved
Democratic Republic of Georgia Regular Army Unknown

The Georgia–Kars war was an armed conflict between the Georgian Democratic Republic and the Kars Republic in 1919. It ended with the Georgian victory.

Background[edit]

Following the dissolution of the Georgian kingdom in 1490, Meskheti formed a separate principality of Samtskhe-Saatabago under the House of Jaqeli. The Ottoman Empire expanded to the area after the victory in the Battle of Sokhoista in 1545. The House of Jakeli adopted Islam and in 1628, Samtskhe-Saatabago became the Childir Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. Jakelis were made hereditary pashas of Akhaltsikhe, a position which they retained, with some brief intermissions, within the family throughout the unceasing wars between the Ottomans, the Iranian dynasties and the Georgian rulers down to the eventual Russian conquest in 1829 (see Battle of Akhaltsikhe). During the First World War, Russian Empire further expanded into the Ottoman territories, although the collapse of the Russian Empire led to Russian withdrawal from the war, while Meskheti became part of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which proclaimed independence from Russia. The Ottoman Empire launched offensive to reclaim the territories in South Caucasus, which led to the Ottomans advancing towards Meskheti. On 26 May 1918, Georgia declared independence from the TDFR and on 4 June, Armenia and Georgia were forced to cede their territory to the Ottomans per Treaty of Batum to establish peace in the region. These territories included Batum oblast, Akhaltsikhe uezd, Akhalkalaki uezd, and Kars oblast. However, Ottoman rule would not last long and Georgia would soon return Akhalkhalaki and Akhalkhalaki uezds in December 1918 in aftermath of the treaty of Mudros.[citation needed]

Ottoman defeat in the First World War[edit]

On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed, which signified Ottoman defeat in the First World War. This agreement stipulated the immediate Ottoman withdrawal from Transcaucasia, except from Kars oblast and a portion of the Batum oblast. These districts should have been evacuated if the Allies demanded so after studying the situation there. During the final weeks of 1918, 50,000 Ottoman soldiers retreated to Kars and a portion of Batum oblast.[1]

On 11 November 1918, British Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, Vice Admiral Gougli-Calthorpe, asked the Ottomans to cede Kars and Batum oblasts. However, the Ottoman government adopted delaying tactics and sought pemission for the Ottoman Ninth Army to winter in Kars. However, on 24 November, the Supreme Allied War Council made a decision to require the Turkish withdrawal from Kars and Batum. Nevertheless, Turkish commander Shevki Pasha protested, arguing that as no on-the-spot Allied investigation took place, the demand of withdrawal violated the treaty of Mudros. He also argued for the arrival of Russian army to the provinces instead of Armenian and Georgian armies, calling them "anarchic elements" the deployment of which would have resulted "in the annihilation of countless thousands of innocent people".[1]

Meanwhile, advised and aided by the Ottoman Ninth Army commanders, the local Muslim leaders formed the Kars Muslim Council in November 1918, superseding it with the Muslim National Council in December. One of its two heads was Jihangirzade (Cihangiroglu) Ibrahim, a regiment commander in the Turkish army and a local leader of the Ittihadist party. This body received weapons, ammunition, and instructions from Shevki Pasha, claimed jurisdiction on the whole Kars province and organized 8,000 men into an armed force. This force was meant to fight Armenians and Georgians in case if the Ninth Army still was forced to withdraw from the region.[2]

On 6 January 1919, Major General George Forestier-Walker, the ranking Allied officer in western Transcaucasia, revealed plans to establish the British military governorship in Kars, while allowing Armenia to appoint the civil officials there. Forestier-Walker told Yakub Shevki Pasha that on 12 January his representative, military governor would arrive to Kars with two hundred British soldiers, along with the civil officials appointed by the Armenian government. He told Turkish troops to withdraw by 25 January.[3] The future of the province was to be decided on the Paris Peace Conference.

However, on 17-18 January, the Ittihadist-orientied conference in Kars proclaimed the independent South-West Caucasus Republic and its ruling organ, South-West Caucasus Provisional Government, and vowed to resist Armenian and Georgian authority.[4] It claimed the territories of the districts inhabited by Muslims: Kars, Batum, Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Sharur and Nakhichevan. These also covered territories already under the Georgian and Armenian authority.[5] British Lieutenant Colonel Temperley and a number of Armenian officials were blocked on their way to Kars by hundreds of armed Muslims which threatened to shoot unless Armenians turned back. Colonel Temperley ordered Armenians to quit the Kars Oblast.[6]

After this, the military and political situation balanced in favor of the Kars republic. This led to the General Yakub Shevki Pasha agreeing to the withdrawal of the Ottoman Ninth Army. However, large caches of arms and ammunitions were concealed throughout Kars oblast and individual officers stayed to direct and assist the local militias.[7]

The British pursued a solicitous policy, striving to avoid conflict with the Muslim partisans of Kars. They also distrusted Armenia because of its pro-Russian tendencies, while the Muslims of Kars constituted a dependable anti-Russian element.[8] The British reached an agreement with the Muslim shura of Kars not to install the Armenian administrators.[9] Despite the Armenian official Hovhannes Kajaznuni telling the British that if the Armenian war refugees were not to return to Kars to sow their fields, they would have faced famine as the last reserves of food exhausted in Armenia, the British General William Henry Beach commiserated but contended that there was no way to allow the repatriates as they could not guarantee their protection. He also said that the final decision about Kars would have been made during the Paris Peace Conference.[10]

After this, the South-West Caucasus Provisional Government waxed powerfully, and extended its loose network into the former Tiflis Gubernia.[11] In Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki districts, Islamic rebellion broke out under the leadership of Server-Beg Jakeli, a descendent of former ruling dynasty of Samtskhe-Saatabago and one of the leaders of the South-West Caucasian Republic. Responding to this uprising, a martial law was declared in the region by Georgia on 30 January. Georgian General Giorgi Mazniashvili was appointed as the governor-general and tasked with fighting the insurgents.[12]

On February 4, the Georgian army arrived to Akhalkalaki, and on 5 February, military operations against insurgents began. However, on 6 February, White Army attacked attacked Georgian positions in Sochi. Georgia faced dilemma, whether to send its forces from Khashuri to Sochi-Abkhazia or Akhalkhalaki-Akhaltiskhe. The Minister of Military Aleksandr Gedevanishvili asked Mazniashvili of his opinion. Considering the Sochi front more important and thinking that losing of Akhaltiskhe would have been only temporary (as opposed to a threat of permanently losing Abkhazia in case of Anton Denikin's successful offensive), Mazniashvili advised to send troops to Sochi. However, he also asked Gedevanishvili to send parts of the 2nd Division to him in hurry, otherwise warning of the Georgian retreat.[13]

The promised troops did not arrive, and on 9 February Mazniashvili was forced to reteat from the battle positions in villages: Tskhrita, Chira, Mikeltsminda, Chorchuto and Partskha to the direction of the town of Akhaltsikhe. However, they could not hold Akhiltsikhe from the insurgents either, and on 11 February Muslim insurgents captured the town. The Georgian units retreated to the direction of Atskuri. After this defeat, General Mazniashvili was dismissed from his post and General Giorgi Kvinitadze was appointed in his position.[13]

Georgia joined Armenia in unbridled opposition to the South-Western Caucasian Republic. Georgian Prime Minister Noe Zhordania excoriated the British policy and tolerance of Muslim shura in Kars for contributing to the rebellions on Georgian territory. Georgian press expressed satisfaction that Armenia turned its attention from north to west – to Kars and Turkish Armenia. While Georgia supported Armenian claims on most of the province of Kars, Georgia asserted its right to the northern districts, particularily the Ardahan okrug and also Olti okrug. Azerbaijan also expressed interest in the matter. It recognized the Kars republic and Azerbaijani Prime Minister Khan Khoiskii urged British General William Montgomerie Thomson to respect "the right of self-determination" of Kars republic and shield it from "Georgian and Armenian aggression". It also claimed that the only acceptable alternative to Kars government would have been the Azerbaijani annexation of its regions. The British General Thomson pledged to preserve the status quo.[11][14]

As the military operations in Abkhazia were temporarily suspended, Georgia got the opportunity to redeploy its forces to the Akhaltsikhe-Akhalkalaki region. On March 5, General Kvinitadze launched an attack from Atskuri and on March 7 reclaimed Akhaltsikhe from Muslim rebels. Soon the Georgian army expelled Server-Beg from Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalki districts.[13]

Meanwhile, the South-Western Caucasian Republic, closely tied with the Ottoman Empire and aided by the still-mobilized Turkish divisions near its borders, set itself to get rid of all external supervision, including that of the British commanders. The Muslim irregulars attacked the British staff and stole British weapons. They also besieged a rail convoy transporting grain to Alexandropol and engaged in skirmishes with the British escort. On 10 March, the British General John Asser reported that the Muslim shura had doggedly flouted the instructions to drop the title of South-West Caucasian Republic and to restrict its activities to the province of Kars. On 15 March, the British staff officer reported that the Muslim shura was "out of hand" and could not be "compelled to obey British orders unless the British garrison in Kars was much increased". These reports helped to convince General Thomson to authorize the Armenian and Georgian armies to occupy the Kars province with the support of the British 27th division. On 14 March, Thomson told the Georgian and Armenian officials to put aside their differences and proposed an arrangement, according to which Armenia was to administer Kaghisman and Kars okrugs, Georgia would administer the norther half of Ardaghan okrug, while the British military government would administer Batum, the Olti okrug and the remainder of Ardaghan. Armenia was to accede to Georgian rule in Akhalkalaki and the northern sector of Lori, including the village and mines of Alaverdi, while Georgia was to acknowledge the rest of Lori as Armenian. Armenian spokesman agreed to the Georgian rule in northern Ardaghan, but tactfully circumvented to Thomson's solution regarding Akhalkalaki and Lori, which he considered as unacceptable.[15]

Initially the British General Commanding Officer of the Army of the Black Sea George Milne, bound by the War Office direct of 15 February to withdraw British forces from Kars as soon as the Ottomans completed their withdrawal, notified his deputy Thomson to change his proposal, which Thomson did. However, the decision to minimize the British obligations in Kars and enhance the Muslim shura was soon rescinded as the reports on shura's seditious and Ittihadist activities increased. The unrest also spread to Turkey, which by the end of March convinced General Milne to put aside the decision of War Office and overthrow the Kars shura. In the beginning of April, the operation was prepared.[16] General Milne informed War Office that the reversal in policy was necessitated by the "brazen anti-Entente attitude of the shura, its collaboration with the Ottoman Ninth Army headquartered nearby at Erzerum, and its open fraternization with Turkish officers working in disguise all about Kars". According to Milne, "there was was the further danger that the enormous military stockpiles, which had been impossible to remove because of snowdrifts, might fall into enemy hands". He also notified the War Office that its directive would have been fulfilled and British troops would have withdrawn as per the directive of February 15 after overthrowing shura.[17] On 19 April, the British troops arrived to Kars, arrested the members of the government of South-West Caucasus and the the British military governor announced Thomson's proclamation on dissolving the shura. Meanwhile, upon the General Thomson's authorization of Georgian advance to the northern Ardaghan, Georgian troops moved and took control of the territory. The Georgian press reported that "the capture of Ardagan is the last act of self-defence which began with the clearing of the Akhaltsikh district of Turkish detachments." At the same time, Georgian troops achieved success on Sochi front and captured Gagra.[18][19]

Sources[edit]

  • Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The first year, 1918-1919. Vol. 1. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520018051.
  • Silakadze, Dimitri (2021). Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) (PDF). Tbilisi: National Defence Academy of Georgia. ISBN 9789941977718.
  • Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. ISBN 9789004179011.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Hovannisian 1971, p. 199.
  2. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 201.
  3. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 202.
  4. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 205.
  5. ^ Charlotte 2010, p. 104.
  6. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 206.
  7. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 207.
  8. ^ Hovannisian 1971, pp. 208–209.
  9. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 209.
  10. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 210.
  11. ^ a b Hovannisian 1971, p. 211.
  12. ^ Silakadze 2021, p. 16.
  13. ^ a b c Silakadze 2021, p. 17.
  14. ^ Charlotte 2010, p. 88.
  15. ^ Hovannisian 1971, pp. 212–213.
  16. ^ Hovannisian 1971, pp. 214–215.
  17. ^ Hovannisian 1971, pp. 217–218.
  18. ^ "Georgia troops seize Gagra, Ardagan". Civil Georgia. 4 May 1919. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  19. ^ Hovannisian 1971, p. 219.
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