高加索战役

The Caucasus campaign, also known as the Caucasus Front, comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dictatorship, and the British Empire, as part of the Middle Eastern theatre during World War I. The Caucasus campaign extended from the South Caucasus to the Armenian Highlands region, reaching as far as Trabzon, Bitlis, Mush and Van. The land warfare was accompanied by naval engagements in the Black Sea.

The Russian military campaign started on 1 November 1914 with the Russian invasion of Turkish Armenia. In February 1917, the Russian advance was halted following the Russian Revolution. The Russian Caucasus Army soon disintegrated and was replaced by the forces of the newly established Transcaucasian state, comprising partly of Armenian volunteer units and irregular units which had previously been part of the Russian Army. During 1918 the region also saw the establishment of the Central Caspian Dictatorship, the Republic of Mountainous Armenia and an Allied intervention force, nicknamed Dunsterforce, composed of troops drawn from the Mesopotamian and Western Fronts.

On March 3, 1918, the campaign had terminated between the Ottoman Empire and Russia with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and on June 4, 1918, the Ottomans signed the Treaty of Batum with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia gaining independence. However, conflict continued as the Ottoman Empire was still engaged with the Central Caspian Dictatorship, the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, and the Dunsterforce of the British Empire until the Armistice of Mudros was signed on October 30, 1918.

Background

The main objective of the Ottoman Empire was the recovery of territory in the Caucasus, including regions captured by the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The strategic goals of the Caucasus campaign for Ottoman forces was to retake Artvin, Ardahan, Kars, and the port of Batum.……

Forces

Ottoman Empire

The Ottomans had one army based in the region, the 3rd Army. In 1916, they sent reinforcements and formed the 2nd Army. At the beginning of the conflict, the combined forces of the Ottomans ranged from 100,000 to 190,000 men.……

Russia

Before the war, Russia had the Russian Caucasus Army stationed here, with 100,000 men under the nominal command of the governor-general of the Caucasus Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov.……

Operations

1914

On November 1, in the Bergmann Offensive, Russians crossed the frontier first. They planned to capture Doğubeyazıt and Köprüköy. The official Russian declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire came on November 2. The established force for this goal was 25 infantry battalions, 37 cavalry units and 120 artillery guns. It had two wings.……

Casualties

Anton Kernosovsky, writing in 1938, reports the Russian casualties for the campaign as: 22,000 killed, 71,000 wounded, 6,000 captured and up to 20,000 frostbitten; giving a total of 119,000 as well as 8 guns lost. For the lesser period of June–September 1916, historians William Allen and Pavel Muratov report there was an irrecoverable loss of 50,000.……

Armenian genocide

During the Caucasus campaign, Ottoman Armenia was depopulated of much of the entire Christian Armenian population as part of the Armenian genocide.……

Aftermath

The Ottoman Empire lost World War I to the Allies, but the borders in the Caucasus were not settled. Two years after the armistice, a peace treaty was signed between the Allied and Associated Powers and Ottoman Empire at Sèvres on August 10, 1920.……

Territorial disputes

After the war, The Georgian-Armenian War 1918 soon followed over the Javakheti and Lori provinces, with Armenia gaining the latter.……