Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

TURKISH–ARMENIAN WAR. This conflict between the 30,000-strong army of the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the approximately 50,000-strong forces of the Turkish National Movement that were deployed in eastern Anatolia lasted from 24 September to 2 December 1920. The war was a consequence of Armenia’s disputing, as the Central Powers collapsed at the end of the First World War, the transfer to Turkey, under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) and the Treaty of Batumi (4 June 1918), of territories claimed by Turkey—notably the regions of Kars, Batumi, and Ardahan—the possession of which would have united the Armenian people and given their putative new state access to the sea.

There had already been armed conflict between the two sides in May 1918, prior to the Batumi agreement, but the situation was complicated in late 1918 by the declaration of an independent South-West Caucasian Democratic Republic, under Cihangirzade İbrahim Bey, claiming sovereignty over those areas ceded to the Ottoman Empire in the earlier treaties but evacuated by Turkish forces under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros, and by the occupation of the provinces of Lori and Javakheti and the Borchalo district by the Democratic Republic of Georgia (which resulted in the Georgian–Armenian War). Tensions grew over the following 18 months and broke into open conflict following Armenia’s partial occupation of the Otlu district in September 1920 (in the wake of hopes aroused in Yerevan by the Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920). Turkish forces, commanded by Kazim Karabekir (Karabekir Pasha), reinforced by local Muslim militiamen, drove the Armenians out and pushed on into Armenian territory, prompting the Yerevan government to declare war on Turkey on 24 September 1920. The subsequent fighting was marked by the massacre and forced migration of civilians by the (semi-irregular) armies of both combatants, notably around Kars (which was occupied by the Turks on 30 October 1920) and Alexandropol (occupied by Turkey on 6 November 1920). As Turkish forces crossed the Araxi River, captured the strategic town of Agin, and prepared to advance on Yerevan, the Armenian government (which had been refused military assistance by the Allies and the Georgians) submitted to an armistice on 18 November 1920, and on 2 December 1920 signed the Treaty of Alexandropol, under which the Treaty of Sèvres and its promised Greater (“Wilsonian”) Armenia were renounced and almost all the disputed territories were ceded to Turkey.

Meanwhile, however, on 29 November 1920 the 11th Red Army had begun an invasion of Armenia from Azerbaijan, which quickly resulted in the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, meaning that the treaty was not ratified by the Armenian Republic. Nevertheless, Moscow’s desire to win the support of Turkey meant that the Alexandropol settlement was largely confirmed by the subsequent Treaty of Moscow (16 March 1921) and Treaty of Kars (13 October 1921), which bedevils Turkish–Armenian relations to this day, not least because the terms of those treaties allotted to Turkey lands in which lay two of the spiritual icons of the Armenian people: Mount Ararat and the ancient Armenian capital of Ani (Abnicum).

Turkul, Anton Vasil′evich (11 December 1892–20 August 1957). Colonel (1918), major general (April 1920). A famed commander of the White forces in South Russia (notably units of the Drozdovtsy), A. V. Turkul was born at Tiraspol′, into the nobility of Bessarabia guberniia, and attended school in Odessa (graduating in 1909). He volunteered for military service at the outbreak of the First World War and graduated from an officer training school (1914) to command a battalion of the 19th Infantry Division. He was wounded three times during the course of the war and was much decorated for bravery.