Battle of Sardarapat
| date | May 24, 1918 to May 26, 1918 |
|---|---|
| place | Sardarapat (now Armavir ) |
| output | All-out victory for the Armenians |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Armenian National Council |
|
| Commander | |
|
General Movses Silikian |
Mursel Pasha |
| Troop strength | |
| 2nd Infantry Division 2nd Cavalry Regiment 5th Karabakh Regiment 3rd Infantry Brigade |
36th Caucasus Division Cavalry Regiment 1500 Kurdish Hamidiye 40 artillery pieces |
| losses | |
|
3,500 dead from May 22nd to 26th |
|
Bergmann Offensive - Sarıkamış - Ardahan - Van - Malazgirt - Karakilise - Erzurum - Trabzon - Bitlis - Muş - German Caucasus Expedition - Sardarapat - Abaran - Karakilisa - Baku
The Battle of Sardarapat ( Armenian Սարդարապատի ճակատամարտ ; Turkish Serdarabad Savaşı ) was a battle of the Caucasus campaign of the First World War , which took place from May 24 to 26, 1918 near the present-day village of Sardarapat (ten kilometers southwest of Armavir or 45 kilometers west of Yerevan ) took place in Armenia . The battle not only stopped the advance of the Ottomans into Armenia, but also prevented - three years after the start of the genocide of the Armenians - a possible complete destruction of the Armenian nation.
prehistory
Just two months after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty , the Ottoman Empire attacked the Armenian part of the Transcaucasian Democratic-Federal Republic . This had only recently gained independence from Russia . In disregard of the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia , parts of the 4th Ottoman Army crossed the border in May 1918 and attacked Alexandropol (today Gyumri ). The Ottoman army intended to conquer former Ottoman territory and the South Caucasus. Hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees who had sought refuge after the genocide lived in this area . The government of the German Empire objected to this attack and refused to help the Ottoman army.
Course of the battle
The Turks took Sardarapat on May 21st and advanced into Yeghegnut . The Armenian general Moeses Silikjan ordered troops of the 5th Armenian Regiment under Poghos Bek-Pirumyan, a guerrilla unit in reserve and a cavalry unit, to watch the advance of the Turkish army. On May 22nd, an offensive was launched and the Armenian troops were able to force the Turks under Yakub Şevki Pasha on a certain route 15-20 km to the west. The Turkish command was able to recover from the losses and organized its forces on the northwest bank of the Aras River . Repeated attempts to cross the river were thwarted by heavy resistance from the 5th Armenian Regiment.
On May 24, several skirmishes took place between the Armenian and Turkish forces and an attempt under Poghos Bek-Pirumyan to drive the Turks from their well-secured positions the next day failed. On May 27, Armenian troops under Karapet Hasan-Pashayan carried out a flank maneuver and hit the Turkish position from behind, while the rest of the Armenian forces attacked the main positions. A Turkish troop stationed in Talin was sent out for relief and was supposed to attack the Armenian troops from behind. The Turkish commanders, who suffered heavy losses, ordered a general withdrawal of the remaining soldiers.
Effects
Concerned by the Ottoman invasion of Armenia, the newly founded Democratic Republic of Georgia in the north requested and received German protection. On May 28, two days after the end of the Battle of Sardarapat, the Armenian National Council in Tbilisi, the capital of the Transcaucasian Democratic-Federal Republic, proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Armenia , which existed until the Bolshevik takeover in November 1920. The Democratic Republic of Armenia was later forced to sign the Treaty of Batumi on June 4, 1918, when the Ottoman army invaded Armenia again , standing just 7 km from Yerevan and 10 km from Etchmiadzin .
Heritage and remembrance
The Battle of Sardarapat has a special place in Armenian memory and is often compared to the Battle of Avarayr against the Sassanids in 451 . After the 1965 demonstrations in Yerevan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Soviet rulers agreed to erect a memorial to the Armenian victory near the battlefield. The architect Raphael Israelyan was commissioned to design a monument. It was inaugurated in 1968. Well-known Armenian writers such as Howhannes Shiraz and Paruyr Sevak, whose work Sardarapat became a popular song, wrote songs and poems that glorified the Armenian fighters.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ashot H. Harutunyan: Սարդարապատի ճակատամարտ 1918 (The Battle of Sardarapat, 1918). In: Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia , Vol. X, Yerevan 1984, pp. 227-228.
- ^ Peter Balakian : The Burning Tigris. The Armenian Genocide and America's Response . HarperCollins, New York 2003, ISBN 0-06-055870-9 , p. 321.
- ^ Richard G. Hovannisian: Armenia's Road to Independence . In the S. (Ed.): The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times , Vol. 2: Foreign Dominion to Statehood. The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century . New York St. Martin's Press 1997, p. 299. ISBN 0-312-10168-6 .
- ↑ Christopher Walker: Armenia. The Survival of a Nation . St. Martin's Press, New York 1980, ISBN 0-7099-0210-7 , p. 254.
- ↑ Armen Karapetyan: Ավարայր և Սարդարապատ ( Avarayr and Sardarapat ), Published in Hamaynapatker , No. 46, 2008, p. 4.
- ↑ Վասն Հայրենյաց… , published in Hamaynapatker , No. 46, 2008, p. 2.