Battle for Baku

Ottoman artillery bombs Baku.

date	August 26, 1918 to September 14, 1918
place	Baku
output	Victory of the Ottoman-Azerbaijani armed forces

Parties to the conflict
Ottoman Empire 1844 Ottoman Empire Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918	Baku Commune Central Asian dictatorship Armenian Revolutionary Federation United Kingdom White Army United Kingdom 1801 Russia
Troop strength
Ottoman Empire 1844 Ottoman Empire : Army of Islam Infantry: 14,000 Cavalry: 500 Artillery: 40 cannons	Baku Commune : 6,000 men : Baku Army Infantry: 6,000 to 9,151 Artillery: 40 cannons United Kingdom : Dunsterforce Infantry: 1,000 1 artillery battery 1 MG section 3 armored vehicles 2 Martinsyde G.100 Russia : Bicherakov deployment Infantry: 600 United Kingdom 1801 Russia
losses
2,000	Central Aspic dictatorship : unknown United Kingdom : 200 United Kingdom 1801

The Battle of Baku ( Azerbaijani döyüşü Bakı , Russian Битва за Баку , Turkish Baku Muharebesi ) from June to September 1918, a battle between forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan on the one hand and Bolsheviks - Dashnak armed forces of the Commune of Baku on the other side, who later in the war were replaced by troops from the British Empire , the White Movement and from Armenia under the leadership of Lionel Dunsterville .

The battle marked the end of the Caucasus Front in World War I , but at the same time it was the starting point for the subsequent Armenian-Azerbaijani War .

background

The Ottoman Caucasus Offensive in 1918

In 1917 the Russian Caucasus Front disintegrated as a result of the February Revolution . On March 9, 1917, the Special Transcaucasian Committee was established to fill the administrative gaps in the areas in Transcaucasia occupied by Russian forces . Representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were also involved in this administration, but it did not last long. In November 1917, the first independent government of Transcaucasia was established in Tbilisi as the Transcaucasian Commissariat after the October Revolution took St. Petersburg. On December 5, 1917, the Commissariat recommended the signing of the Erzincan Armistice between Russia and the 3rd Army of the Ottoman Empire. After that, many Russian soldiers left the front and returned to their homeland. In direct contradiction to the armistice agreement, however, some Russian soldiers took part in fighting in Persia . General Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Baratow remained in Hamadan , however , and a Russian officer with 10,000 men was quartered in Kermanshah . Both units were provided with British liaison officers.

In 1918 Great Britain tried to convince Armenians to continue the fight against the Ottoman Empire and founded the Dunsterforce under the command of Lionel Dunsterville , which was initially stationed in Baghdad . The military goal of the Dunsterforce was to reach the Caucasus via the front in Persia. The British planned to raise an army of Armenians and other factions friendly to the Entente in the Caucasus. On February 10, 1918, the Transcaucasian Commissariat decided to declare the independence of their territories and on February 24, 1918 the Transcaucasian Democratic-Federal Republic was officially established. Their anti- Bolshevik political goals were the separation of Transcaucasia from the now Bolshevik Russia. On January 27, 1918, the Dunsterforce had already left Baghdad for the Caucasus in order to keep the Caucasus front alive and to thwart the plans of the Ottoman general Enver Pasha . On February 17, the Dunster Force reached Bandar Anzali , but was prevented from continuing to Baku by local Bolsheviks.

On March 3, 1918, the undersigned Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia . In this it was determined that the pre-war borders between Russia and the Ottoman Empire should be restored and the cities of Batumi , Kars and Ardahan should fall to the Ottomans. Between March 14 and April 1918, a peace conference between the Ottoman Empire and a delegation from the Transcaucasian Republic took place in Trabzon . On March 30, news of conflicts and massacres of Azerbaijanis and other Muslim residents in and around Baku reached the delegations in Trabzon that were to become later than March events . In total, between 3,000 and 12,000 people were killed by armed Bolshevik and Armenian revolutionaries . While the Azerbaijani representatives were striving for autonomy within Russia before the massacres , afterwards they insisted on complete independence and no longer trusted in the Russian revolution, but instead sought support from the Ottoman Empire.

On April 5, 1918, Akaki Chkhenkeli from the Transcaucasian delegation accepted the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty as a basis for negotiations and tried to persuade the government in Tbilisi to adopt this position. In Tbilisi, however, the mood was completely different; they saw themselves at war with the Ottoman Empire. A short time later the 3rd Army captured Erzurum , Kars and Van . Especially in the Caucasus the situation became more and more difficult because Enver Pasha wanted to place Transcaucasia under Ottoman suzerainty in order to be able to implement his plans of Pan-Turasimus . This plan would have given the Central Powers access to numerous raw materials essential to the war effort, including the oil fields around Baku. In addition, the control of this section of the Caspian Sea would also have enabled further expansion into Central Asia and possibly even British India .

On May 11, 1918, a new peace conference began in Batumi . At this conference, the Ottoman Empire expanded its territorial claims to Tbilisi, Alexandropol and Etschmiadzin in order to build a railway line from Kars via Julfa to Baku. As a result, the Armenian and Georgian delegates of the Transcaucasian Republic began to let the negotiations come to nothing, which led the Ottoman Empire to renewed military advances, which were carried out in the Battle of Sardarapat (May 21-29 ), the Battle of Karakilisa ( May 24th). to 28 May) and the Battle of Abaran (21 to 24 May).

During the Battle of Karakilisa on May 26, 1918, the Transcaucasian Republic disintegrated through the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia , whose example was followed shortly thereafter on May 28 by the other areas with the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan . After the declaration of independence in the Treaty of Poti, Georgia concluded a protection agreement with the German Empire . The Georgians believe that the German Caucasus expedition should protect Georgia from the effects of the October Revolution and the Ottoman military offensive. The government of Azerbaijan moved its seat from Tbilisi to Gəncə . In the same period, however, Germany offered Soviet Russia to stop the offensive of the Ottoman army of Islam in the Caucasus if Russia would allow Germany access to Baku's oil fields. On August 27, the negotiations were concluded and Germany was assured a quarter of Baku's oil production. Thereupon Germany demanded from the allied Ottoman Empire that it should postpone its offensive in Azerbaijan, which the Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pascha ignored.

In May 1918, the Islamic Army of the Caucasus began to be formed in Tabriz on the Persia Front under Nuri Pasha to fight not only the Armenians but also the Bolsheviks. This army conquered large parts of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan without encountering any resistance worth mentioning and thus had a major influence on the fragile structure of the new state. The resulting increased Ottoman influence on Azerbaijan led to a hostile attitude of parts of the population towards the Turks.

On June 4, 1918, Azerbaijan and the Ottoman Empire signed a friendship treaty in which Clause 4 promised Azerbaijan military aid, if such should become necessary to maintain peace and stability in the country.

initial situation

The Islamic Army of the Caucasus was under the command of Nuri Pasha and consisted of the 5th Caucasian and 15th Divisions, as well as the Azerbaijani-Muslim Corps under General Ali-Agha Schichlinski . The army consisted of approximately 14,000 Ottoman troops and 500 cavalry, as well as 40 artillery pieces. 30% of the army were Ottoman soldiers , the other 70% consisted of Azerbaijani troops and volunteers from Dagestan .

Baku's troops were led by a former tsarist general and his Armenian chief of staff, Colonel Avetisov. Around 6,000 troops of the Central Aspic dictatorship , which had previously been founded on August 1, 1918, were under their command . The vast majority of the army consisted of Armenians and some Russians. The artillery consisted of 40 field cannons . Most of Baku's Soviet troops were also Armenians who belonged to or sympathized with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation . One of the leaders of the Soviet troops was the commander Amazasp, who was responsible for some massacres of Azerbaijanis.

The British mission consisted of the Dunster Force , commanded by Major General Lionel Dunsterville . Dunsterville took command on January 18 in Baghdad, where the first troops had already been assembled. The Dunsterforce left Baghdad on January 27 with four NCOs in 41 Ford vans and cars . The combat strength was about 1,000 men, supported by an artillery battery , a machine-gun section , three armored vehicles and two Martinsyde G.100 aircraft . Dunsterville was to cross Persia with his troops and thus also the Mesopotamian front and the Persian front and hold the port of Bandar Anzali .

Combat units
Lionel Dunsterville (far left) with members of the Dunsterforce staff .
Dunsterforce members train troops from the local Baku Army
Armenian troops train in Baku
Murad of Sebasteia died in the Battle of Baku
The Islamic Army of the Caucasus crosses Qazax on the way to Baku

Fighting

The North Staffords , part of the Dunsterforce, on their way to Baku.

Armenian troops in a trench.

Outside of Baku

On June 6, 1918, the commander of the Soviet troops in Baku ordered Grigory Korganov of the Red Army to launch an offensive against Gəncə . On the way to Gəncə, the army looted villages and killed mostly Muslim civilians. The troops for Baku requested by the Armenian Soviet politician Stepan Schahumjan were, however, held back by Joseph Stalin in Tsaritsyn . In addition, the food delivery planned for Baku was diverted to this city. Shahumyan protested against these measures and unsuccessfully complained to the military committee in Moscow about Stalin's actions. The lack of troops and food should be one of the determining factors in the defeat of the Soviet troops in Baku. Since the government of Azerbaijan was unable to guarantee the country's independence as a result of the Soviet offensive, Azerbaijan asked the Ottoman Empire for support, as stated two days earlier in the agreement between the two countries.

From June 27 to July 1, 1918, the Islamic Army of the Caucasus defeated the Red Army in Göyçay and began its advance on Baku. At this time, Bicherakov was with White Army troops near Qazvin on their way back to Russia. After defeating some Jangalis , Bicherakov visited Baku to check the situation. After learning about the approaching Ottoman army on June 22nd, he planned to stop the Ottomans in a suburb of Baku. However, he arrived there too late and then tried to attack the Ottomans from the north in the direction of Derbent . In Baku he left only a small contingent of Cossacks . The Jangalis in Iran, in turn, fought skirmishes with the Dunsterforce, which was just on the way to Anzali, but were ultimately defeated by the British troops. When Dunstertville arrived in Anzali in late July, he arrested the local Bolsheviks who had allied themselves with the Jangalis.

On July 26th, 1918, the Central Aspic dictatorship successfully carried out a coup against Shahumyan and his Soviet troops. Shahumyan initially escaped arrest by the new city government, in which they brought the city's arsenal and 13 ships under their control. The Soviets attempted to reach Astrakhan on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea by ships , but were intercepted and escorted back by the Caspian Flotilla , loyal to the new government.

By July 30, the advance guard of the Islamic Army of the Caucasus had already reached the heights above Baku, which prompted Dunsterville to immediately order a contingent of his troops to Baku, which arrived there on August 16.

The day after the arrival of the British troops, the city government launched an offensive against the suburb of Diga. 600 Armenians were to advance in north Baku, supported by units of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the North Staffordshire Regiment , which should ultimately take Novxanı . The capture of the suburb was intended to close the gap to the northern coast of the Abşeron Peninsula and thereby strengthen Baku's defense lines. The attack failed, however, as the artillery commander was not informed of the advance. The remaining troops took up positions north of Diga.

Fight in the city

Bombed oil derrick during the battle.

Shortly before the Ottoman offensive: Russian and Armenian soldiers at the front.

While skirmishes took place in the vicinity of Baku and the city from June to mid-August, the term “battle for Baku” refers to the fighting between August 26 and September 14, 1918. On August 26, the Islamic Army of the Caucasus started their main offensive against the defensive positions at the western Wolf Gate. Despite a lack of artillery, the troops of Baku and the British contingent were able to hold their positions against the attacks. After this attack, the Ottomans turned their focus to conquering the heights in Binəqədi Rayon , but failed here too. After the fighting, the city's reserve troops were sent to the northern heights in Biləcəri , but had to retreat to the railway line further below due to the increased bombardment by the Ottoman artillery.

On August 28 and 29, the Ottoman forces occupied Baku with heavy artillery fire and attacked the positions in Binəqədi north of the city. 500 Ottoman soldiers stormed the hills but were repulsed with the help of Baku's artillery. However, the weakened British troops had to give up their positions and retreat south towards the city walls.

Between August 29 and September 1, Ottoman forces were able to take positions on the heights of Binəqədi and Diga. Numerous troops of the defenders were overrun and suffered heavy losses. By the end of these attacks, the defense forces had already been pushed back to the heights around the city. However, the Ottoman losses were so great that the Ottoman general Mürsel Bey did not immediately resume the offensive. The hesitation of the Ottoman leadership enabled the troops of the Transcaucasian dictatorship to reorganize and establish new defensive positions. Faced with the deteriorating situation, Dunsterville met with the leaders of the Transcaucasian dictatorship on September 1, during which the British major general made it clear that he was not prepared to continue sacrificing the lives of British soldiers to defend the city and indicated a retreat of the British troops. This sparked protests by the city government, who wanted to fight to the end and the British should only leave the city if the troops of the Transcaucasian dictatorship would also withdraw. Dunsterville then decided to stay until the situation became hopeless.

In the meantime, the White Army under Bicherakov was able to take the city of Port-Petrovsk (today Makhachkala ) in Dagestan and thus send a contingent of 600 men, including some Kossacks, to Baku. When the troops reached Baku, the defenders hoped that they would still be able to defend the city.

From September 1 to 13, the Ottomans did not carry out any new offensives. During this time Baku prepared for the upcoming attack and used constant reconnaissance flights. In his diary, Dunsterville also mentioned the war atrocities committed by Armenian soldiers against the city's Muslim residents in September 1918. On September 12th, an Arab officer of the 10th Ottoman Division deserted and informed the city defenders that the main attack on the city would take place on September 14th.

On the night of September 13-14, the Ottoman forces actually began their attack. They overran the strategically important Wolf Gate west of Baku, from which the entire battlefield could be overlooked. However, the offensive was halted by a counter-offensive and fighting continued all day until the situation became hopeless for the defenders. On the evening of September 14, the remnants of the Baku Army and Dunsterforce left the city and embarked for Bandar Anzali in the south.

consequences

Memorial to the fallen British soldiers in Baku.

The massacre of the Muslim population in March 1918 by the Armenians in Baku, previously carried out in March, led to pogroms of the Armenian population after the city was taken by the Ottoman Empire . The Armenians panicked and tried to leave the city by ship at the port, while the regular Ottoman forces were held back for two days. During these two days, units recruited in the city carried out massacres of the Armenian population, making it the last massacre carried out during the First World War.

British casualties in the battle amounted to around 200 men who were either killed, wounded, or missing. Mürsel Bey put the losses of the Ottoman army at 2,000. Between 9,000 and 10,000 Armenians were killed among Baku civilians, roughly the same as the number of Azerbaijanis killed in the March massacre. A total of 20,000 Armenians were killed or deported.

The real goal of the Ottomans to use oil from the Baku oil fields could not be achieved. The oil deliveries did not get beyond Tbilisi before the Ottoman Empire ceased all fighting on October 30, 1918 with the Moudros armistice and the Ottoman army evacuated Baku. The city was officially handed over to Great Britain on November 16, 1918. The taking over British General William Thomson sailed into town with 5,000 soldiers; his troop contingent also included units of the Dunsterforce who had previously fled on September 14th. Martial law was imposed on the city until "civil institutions are strong enough to relieve the armed forces from their task of maintaining public order."

Web links

Commons : Battle for Baku - collection of images, videos and audio files

Lionel Dunsterville: The Diaries of General Lionel Dunsterville, 1918. Great War Documentary Archive, accessed July 24, 2007 .
Cecil Judge: With General Dunsterville in Persia and Transcaucasus. Russia-Australia Historical Military Connections, archived from the original on August 31, 2007 ; Retrieved July 24, 2007 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj Leslie Missen: Dunsterforce . In: Peter Young (ed.): Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I . Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1984, ISBN 0-86307-181-3 , pp. 2766-2772 .

↑ Lisa Smedman: Dunsterforce. ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Vancouver Courier newspaper. (PDF) @1@ 2

^ William Yale: Near East: A Modern History. 1968, p. 247

↑ Khatchatur Dadyan: Armenians and Baku. 2006, p. 118

↑ ^a ^b Tadeusz Swietochowski: Russian Azerbaijan 1905–1920. P. 119.

^ Dudley S. Northcote: Current History . New York Times, 1922, pp. 788 .

^ New Republics in the Caucasus. In: The New York Times Current History. v. 11 no.2 (March 1920), p. 492.

↑ Michael Smith: Anatomy of Rumor: Murder Scandal, the Musavat Party and Narrative of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-1920. In: Journal of Contemporary History. Vol 36, No. 2, April 2001, p. 228.

↑ Michael Smith: Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory . ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Russian) @1@ 2

^ Richard Hovannisian: The Armenian people from ancient to modern times. Pp. 292-293.

↑ Ezel Kural Shaw: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. P. 326.

^ David Marshall Lang : A Modern History of Georgia . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1962, pp. 207-208.

^ ^A ^b ^c Tadeusz Swietochowski: Russian Azerbaijan, 1905–1920: The Shaping of National Identity in a Muslim Community . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985.

↑ Alexander Goryanin: Довольно вредное ископаемое. (Russian)

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Firuz Kazemzadeh: Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917–1921) . New York Philosophical Library, 1951.

↑ Pasdermadjian, 1918, p. 22.

↑ Miklós Kun: Stalin: An Unknown Portrait . Central European University Press, 2003.

^ Pierre Comtois: World War I: Battle for Baku. (No longer available online.) HistoryNet, archived from the original on September 30, 2007 ; Retrieved July 19, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

^ Lionel Dunsterville: The Diaries of General Lionel Dunsterville, 1918. Great War Documentary Archive, accessed January 10, 2009 .

↑ George Andreopoulos: Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions . University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8122-1616-4 , p. 236

^ Bruno Coppieters: Commonwealth and Independence in Post-Soviet Eurasia . Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-7146-4480-3 , pp. 82 .

[caven-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj Leslie Missen: Dunsterforce . In: Peter Young (ed.): Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I . Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1984, ISBN 0-86307-181-3 , pp. 2766-2772 .