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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/warrevolutioninaOOpric
WAR & REVOLUTION IN ASIATIC RUSSIA
THREE ASPECTS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
By EMILE VANDERVELDE
Translated by JEAN E. H. FINDLAY Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
M. Vandervelde's book gives in broad outline a comprehensive view of the Russian Revolution in its political, military, and industrial aspects. M. Louis de Broukere, the well-known Belgian Socialist, and Lieutenant de Mann, who accompanied M. Vander- velde on his recent mission to Russia, contribute valuable material on the industrial and military problems. The book is characterized by a lucidity and breadth of view which enable us to arrive at definite conclusions regarding the much-discussed question of the future of Russia and her share in the reconstruction of Europe.
London : George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
P?)4Gw
WAR & REVOLUTION IN ASIATIC RUSSIA
BY
M. PHILIPS PRICE
{Special Correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian")
^
A-
\
LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UN WIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1
First published in igi8
(All rights nsetvid)
PREFACE
In November 1914 I came to Russia, as special corres- pondent for the Manchester Guardian. Up to March 1915 I was engaged in Petrograd and Warsaw, and then spent three months in the rear of the Russian army in Galicia. After the disastrous retreat of the Russians from Lemberg I made my way back to Petrograd. The difficulty of carrying on press correspondence from the European fronts in Russia was very great. It was impossible to report the true state of affairs. The persecution of the Ruthenes and the pogroms of the Jews, which I witnessed during the retreat, had to remain unrecorded. A rigid censorship made the task in which I was engaged a hopeless one. And yet I could not write and say that all was well, or join the chorus of those who conceived it their duty to hide the truth. Rather than bury my conscience in Europe I decided to betake myself to Asia. When I arrived in the Caucasus, that "gateway" into Central Asia, the whole of the Middle East was before me. No one had worked out the story of what was happening there while Europe was seething. I therefore spent the latter half of 1915 and the whole of 1916 in the Caucasus, making journeys into the neighbouring regions of Persia, Greater Armenia, and the Black Sea coast. While I was on these journeys I kept a careful diary of all that I
5
Prefa
ce
saw, and sent frequent dispatches to my newspaper. Part II of this volume is made up out of my diary and out of articles which appeared during these months in the Manchester Guardian. During the summer and autumn of 1916 I was doing relief work among refugees in the Trans-Caucasus and the neighbouring regions of Turkey. While on this work I travelled through a large part of the province of Fars and Lazistan, both of which little-known regions I describe in Chapters VI and VII. Part I is a short history of the Caucasus campaign which I compiled during the winter of 1916, while living in Tiflis. In the Introduction I try to connect the great events that were taking place in the Middle East with the past history of Central Asia, and to sketch the lines along which an international settlement might be made. I was just completing this when the Russian Revolution broke out, and I became a witness of its effects in the Asiatic provinces. In Part III, I lead up to this theme. I show in Chapter IX the real state of Asiatic Russia, as I saw it in the months preceding the Revolution. In Chapter VIII I show how the Russian reaction was in part responsible for the disastrous state of affairs in Armenia, and was contributing with the Turkish Government to bring that unhappy country to the verge of ruin. In the last Chapter, I describe the Revolution in Asia and the dawn of the new era which Russia has now made for the people of that continent.
M. PHILIPS PRICE. Petrograd. May 19, 1917.
Note. — A chapter on "Persia and her Future" will be included in later edit/fins after the war or when there is no Censor to be consulted.
CONTENTS
»AGB
Preface .......... 5
Introduction . . . . . . . .21
The two " gateways " between Europe and Asia — the incessant race movements passing across them — the physical features of Central Asia — the two types of humanity that live there — the nomad invasions into the West — the penetration of European influence into Asia — the movement of races from the Russian plain across the Caucasus isthmus — the connection between race move- ments and economic interests — the regions of the Middle East — the Greek sea-board — the Anatolian tableland — the Armenian plateau — the Iranian plateau — the Caucasus isthmus — the six ancient trade routes across the Middle East — modern lines of trade and economic development between East and West — Imperial exploitation and spheres of interest — the proletariat movement of the West and the hopes of its influence on the Eastern Question — possibility of a settlement among the financial groups — the force of " world economics " — the internationalizing of Constantinople and the Trans-Persian railway.
PART I
MILITARY HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS CAMPAIGN (1914-16)
CHAPTER I
Early Stages of the Campaign (1914-15) ... 49
The mistake of ignoring the Asiatic fronts — the import- ance of the Caucasus campaign for the general strategy of the Allies — the geographical structure of the Armenian
7
Contents
MM
and Trans-Caucasian plateaux — the strategic problems before the Russian and Turkish General Staffs — the bases at Kars and Erzerum — the possibilities of flanking movements in the Chorokh depression and in north-west Persia — the opening of the campaign — Enver Pasha's offensive and the Turkish invasion of the Caucasus — Ishkhan Pasha's defeat at Sary-Kamish — the Turkish spring offensive in Azairbijan — defeat of Halil Bey's division at the battle of Dilman — the Armenian rebellion at Van and the Russian advance — their occupation of the Van vilayet — the July retreat and the Russian reoccupation of Van.
CHAPTER II
The Erzerum Offensive (February 1916). ... 64
General state of the Caucasus army during 1915 — danger of a Turkish concentration — great value of the Anglo- French expedition at the Dardanelles in saving the Caucasus army — the Grand Duke Nicolas succeeds in strengthening the Asiatic fronts — Turkish concentration against British in Mesopotamia and consequent weaken- ing of their forces in Armenia — the opportunity for the Caucasus Army — the fortress of Erzerum and its physical surroundings — Turkish dispositions and plan of defence — the Russian dispositions and plan of attack — the capture of the Azap-keui positions — retreat of the Turks to the Deve-boyun — Halid Bey's counter-attack in the Chorokh depression repulsed by the Russian Turkestans — Russian advance a semicircular line 130 miles long — difficulties of holding the line across the high mountain ranges — attack of the 1st Caucasus Army Corps on the Deve-boyun positions — capture of outer forts — Turks repulse the Elizabetopol and Baku regiments before Chaban-dede with heavy loss — Russian attack in danger of breaking down — wonderful feat of the 4th Composite Division in crossing the Kargar-bazar heights and joining the 2nd Turkestans — forts Chaban-dede and Tufta in danger of being surrounded — Turkish retreat from . the forts and evacuation of Erzerum — moral and political effect of the capture of Erzerum — its strategic value for the campaign in Asia.
Contents
PART II
DIARY OF AUTHOR'S JOURNEYS
CHAPTER III
PACK
With the Russian Expedition in North-West Persia
and khurdistan. ...... 89
I leave Tiflis — visit Ani — ascend Mount Alagyoz — visit Echmiadzin and the Armenian Catholicos — reach Djulfa and cross the Persian frontier — arrive at Tabriz — the political atmosphere there — educational revival among the Persians — I buy horses and make up my caravan — start off from Tabriz — reach the Lake of Urumiah — visit Dilman — a town without a governor — visit General Chernozubof — start off for the town of Urumiah — the Russian retreat in progress and the flight of the Assyrian refugees — I reach Urumiah and find it un- occupied— am taken in by Dr. Packard at American Mission — story of the Khurdish invasion of Urumiah in the winter 191 4 — the national movements among the Khurds — their habits and race movements along the Turco-Persian border — evil effect of Russian and Turkish political intrigues on the morale of the Khurds — history of Simko — the Russian Consul in Urumiah declares an amnesty to the Khurds just after my arrival — I accom- pany Dr. Packard on a mission to pacify the Khurds — we visit the Begzadis of Mergawer — meet the armed tribesmen at Dize — are escorted to the chief — spend the night with Abdull a Agha — secure a passage for the Assyrian Christians — return to Urumiah — go out again to meet Bedr Khan Bey — bring him in to the Russian Consul — visit the Begzadis of Tergawer — ride up on to the high plateau — meet the outposts of Khurdu Bey — arrive in his camp — are received with Oriental pomp — discover Turkish agents in the camp — discover great loot from Urumiah — negotiate with Khurdu Bey — the fanatical sheikh — Khurdu Bey agrees to release his Christian slaves — bring the Christians back to Urumiah — the American Mission in Urumiah, its history and work.
Contents
CHAPTER IV
PAQX
With the Armenian Volunteers round Lake Van . 122
I return to Dilman — witness the retreat oi the Assyrians into Persia — visit their Patriarch and hear his story — history of the Assyrian Christians — start out for Armenia — reach the valley of the Great Zab — visit the monastery of Deer — spend a few days in a Russian camp — cross the Chukha-Sadik pass — my first sight of Lake Van — I reach the city — meet the Armenian volun- teers under Ishkhan — join the Red Cross detachment — we start out for the front — in camp at Shah-bagi — I visit the great rock at Van — the inscription of Xerxes — we start for the front — pass the camp of Andranik — my interview with the Armenian revolutionary leader — types of Armenian revolutionaries — we go into camp at Ang — our life there — life in the neighbouring camps — a review of the troops — three Armenian scouts come into camp — they tell us stories of the Turks — Yegishey tells me stories about the Khurds — the orders for advance come — our column on the march — we reach the head- waters of the Tigris — come to a desolate upland plateau — our first sight of the Turks — descend into a deep valley — camp in the darkness beneath the Turks — an outpost affair — attacking the Turks in the early morning — we gain the summit of the pass — a gorgeous panorama — witness the advance of the Russian columns from the pass — a great battle scene — descend towards the lake — the attack on the following day — I witness the bombardment from the artillery observation post — talk with my friends among the infantry just before the attack — witness the attack from a hill — the capture of Narek Vank by the Armenians — walk over the field of battle — help a Cossack to bury a dead Turk — we all gather together in the evening — our fight against famine begins — we are caught in a blizzard — a terrible night at Vostan — the food arrives — we reach Van again — return to Persia — wayside scenes at Serai and in the Kotur defiles — reach the oasis of Khoy — I return to the Caucasus.
CHAPTER V My visit to Erzerum after its Capture by the Russians . 163 I arrive at Kars— I stay with the Vice-Governor— pre- parations for the advance — the Kars plateau in winter
10
Contents
PACK
— news of the Erzerum offensive comes — I leave for Sary-Kamish — join my colleagues of the Russian press — start off in transport wagons — reach the Passan plain — the scenes in the wake of the advance — arrive at Kupru-koui — the rumble of the artillery on the Deve-boyun — Hassan-kaleh — I climb on to the great rock — scenes on the upper Passan — the ravages of war and changes of nature — we are received by General Eudenitch — reach the Deve-boyun chain — a distant view of a rearguard action — arrive in Erzerum — scenes in the street — start out to visit the forts — inspect the old Turkish guns — ascend the high plateau — terrible cold — the abandoned Turkish batteries — dead bodies in the snow — the last sleep of two Russian and Turkish peasants — we reach fort Chaban-dede — — the great panorama of the Deve-boyun — sleep in the highest fort in the world — visit the snow-fields on the Olugli — the scene of the great struggle — return to Erzerum — I visit Mr. Stapleton — his heroic work with Mrs. Stapleton in the cause of the Armenians — Zdanevitch and I ride up to fort Palan-teken — view from the summit of the pass — with the soldiers in the fort at tea — we discuss the war — their attitude towards it — return to Erzerum — and to Tiflis.
CHAPTER VI
My Summer Journey on the Kars Plateau and in the
Upper Chorokh Basin (1916) .... 183
The organization of relief work for sufferers from the war on the Caucasus front — I go to Kars to investigate the state of the refugees — the population of the Kars plateau — relations between the races before the war — disastrous moral effect of the war upon them — material losses of both Moslems and Armenians — impossibility of attaching the blame now — international commission desirable to make restitution to occupied regions of Turkey from a common fund of all belligerent countries — I visit Moslem villages — the Khurdish population of the Kars plateau — the Ali-Allahi sect — tendency of the Moslem sects in this region to unite since the war into one national group — I set out on a journey to the Chorokh — springtime on the high plateaux — the
II
Contents
ruined villages — I cross the Allah-ak-bar pass — magnifi- cent view of the Kars plateau and the Olti depression — descend through pine forests to the village of Arsenek — am entertained by the Turkish peasants — their poli- tical outlook — " Who is our Padishah ? " — I reach Olti — start out with M. Kuzetsef for the Upper Chorokh — we pass the Gey Dag — Russian engineering feats in the Upper Chorokh and the strategical value of the new roads — reach Tortum — tea under the mulberry- trees — I climb up to the old castle — find ruins of a Christian church — probabilities of the ancient Georgian frontiers being once here — investigate the condition of the natives — estimate of the population and its losses from the war — we cross the Kazan Dag — magnificent view of the whole Upper Chorokh basin — reach the Staff of General Prejvalsky — the " peasant-general " and his character — discuss the native racial problems in Asia — I see the refugees — we return to Tortum valley — population seen en route — return to Olti — on the road to Kars again — I travel with Russian peasant soldiers — their views on the war — fatalism and the military machine — visit the Kars prison — A Russian conscientious objector — reach Ardahan — condition of the town and district — effect of the war on the native population — visit the summer encampment of the Ali-Allahi sect — their religious practices — visit Turkish villages — their views on the Arab rebellion against the Sultan and the Caliphate — visit the villages of the Russian Dissenters — a typical Malakan village — history of their sect — their high moral character — their pro- gressive habits — their high standard of husbandry — its effect on the Asiatic natives — their social relation with their Armenian and Moslem neighbours.
CHAPTER VII Work among the Refugees in Lazistan. . . .216
I buy food and warm clothing for the Lazis — Dr. Sultanof and I arrive at Batum — difficulties of transporting our material to Lazistan — the geographical structure of Lazistan — history of Lazistan — Tamara's dream — probable population of Lazistan — effect of the Turkish retreat and the Russian occupation on the natives of
12
Contents
MM
Lazistan — we reach Morgul — we can get no farther — the natives save us trouble by carrying all the food on their backs — capacity of the Lazi for carrying heavy weights — we pass through lower Ad j aria — ruined and deserted condition of the country — history of the Turkish invasion here at commencement of war — the return of the Russians — the massacre of the Adjars — statistics for the population of Ad j aria — we reach Artvin — wonderful situation of the town — we stay with Captain Zasemovitch — the inhabitants of Artvin — the Catholic Armenians and their history — set out for Lazistan — a wonderful pass — see all Ad j aria and the Caucasus range at one glance — our first sight of Lazistan — look into an abyss — descend two thousand feet sheer — reach Melo, the first village of Lazistan — meet the Russian officials — " I don't know where my district ends " — terrible condition of the natives — we distribute our food and clothing — walk on foot farther up the gorges — reach a true Lazi village — starving people wish to entertain us — the Lazi, his life and habits, his character and the beauty of his women — we find Greek Christians — their underground church and secret custom — return to Batum.
PART III
POLITICAL
CHAPTER VIII The Armenian Question and its Settlement . . 237
Armenia's fate between two Imperial Powers — the Eastern Question in relation to Armenia — the weakness of Turkey's rule in Armenia and its cause — the three social elements in the population of Armenia — Turkish in- capacity to assimilate — the Turkish Revolution and the two political parties in Constantinople — liberal nationalism and the party of Enver Pasha — proposal for peaceful solution of Balkan Question — Russian policy at Constantinople and M. Charikorl — attitude of Russian authorities in Caucasus — the raising of the question of Armenian autonomy — failure of the proposal — the Balkan
13
Contents
PAOK
war — triumph of Enver Pasha's party — the policy of blood and iron — process of natural reconciliation between Khurd and Armenian — effect of Powers' Armenian reform scheme on this reconciliation — the outbreak of the European war — the Erzerum conference — Young Turk Committee's proposal to the Armenians — the " chain of buffer States " in the Caucasus — Turkish Government's pretexts for demands on Armenians — the Armenian volunteer movement in the Caucasus and its origin — disagreement among the Armenians on ques- tions of policy — the Armenian massacres — probable number of survivors — the losses of the Khurds and Moslems during the war — the losses of the Assyrian Chris- tians— race movements in Armenia resulting from wars in last hundred years — figures of Armenian and Khurdish population of Armenia before the war — the pressure of the Khurds on the Armenians and its economic causes — the problem of the future race settlement — need for re-establishing friendly relations between Armenians and Khurds — right of people of Armenia to decide their own fate — need to summon a Khurdo-Armenian assembly — the future political structure — will natives decide for union with Turkey or with Russia? — reasons for preferring union with Russia.
CHAPTER IX Nationalism and Internationalism in the Caucasus . 255
The development of nationalism among small races as result of Imperialist policies of Great Powers — the principle of "Divide et impera" — national revival in Caucasus and Middle East during eighteenth century — its purely cultural aspect in its early stages — the growth of political national- ism— it spreads from Europe to the Near and then the Middle East — the effect of the Russian Revolution of 1905 on the Near and Middle East — the beginnings of the proletariat " international " movement and its speedy collapse — the Russian reaction and its policy for dealing with revolutionary movements — development of an aggres- sive nationalism among races of Caucasus as result of the crushing of the proletariat revolution — the Nationalist parties among the Armenians — the Nationalist parties among the Georgians — Nationalist movements among
14
Contents
the Tartars — their development of political self-conscious- ness— the two forms of Pan-Islam movement, the political and the cultural — nationalism in the Caucasus after the outbreak of the great war — the balance of power between the races — influx of the Armenian refugees from Turkey and its effect on creation of Tartar-Georgian Block — policy of Russian authorities embitters the national feuds — Prince Vorontsoff-Dashkoft and the Alashkert Cossack proposal — the Grand Duke Nicolas introduces the Zemstvo scheme — attitude of Armenian Nationalists — attitude of Tartar-Georgian aristocracy — attitude of Social-Democrat parties — the Grand Duke and landowning classes insist on conservative franchise — beginnings of rapprochement between Caucasian nation- alities during winter 191 6- 17 — the strengthening of the international-revolutionary movement in response to developments in Russia — the March Revolution in the Caucasus and the appearance of the Council of Workers and Soldiers' Delegates — the attitude towards it of the Armenian and Georgian Socialist societies — the reac- tionary forces among the Georgian aristocracy — the Armenian bourgeoisie and the Russian Liberal Imperialists — the difficulty of reconciling the National with the International movements in the Caucasus — the possi- bility of a compromise on the basis of federation.
CHAPTER X The Russian Revolution and its Effects in Asia. . 270
The Russian reaction and the war — suppression of move- ments for liberty — persecution of small nationalities — the responsibility of the " Northclifle " Press in its rela- tions with the Russian Government — the apparent hopelessness of the revolutionary movement in Russia — the rebellion of the natives of Central Asia against Russia in 1 9 16 — the decisive factor was the food crisis — statistics showing the depletion of Russia's food supplies as the result of the war — the approach of famine and its effect in reviving the revolutionary movement — the three social elements in Russia on the eve of the Revolution — (1) the peasant proletariat — (2) the aristocracy, higher bureau- cracy, and the Court party — their desire for a separate
15
Contents
peace as a means of crushing revolution — English support of the Russian reaction — the " Northcliffe " Press and its sympathy for Nicolas II — (3) the Russian middle-class parties and the Progressive Block — their capitalist connections and Imperialist aims — their estrangement from the peasant proletariat — the " intelligentsia " and its union with the middle classes — the social elements in Asiatic Russia on the eve of the Revolution — in Siberia — in Turkestan and Bokhara — in the Caucasus — spread of the revolutionary movement in the Caucasus during the winter 1916-17 — the Government's attempts to suppress it — the collapse of the economic system — the appearance of brigandage and famine — mutiny among the troops — plan for the advance on Nosul across Persia falls through on account of impossibility of feed- ing troops — the British advance on Bagdad alone — first news of the revolution in Petrograd reaches the Caucasus — the Socialist-Revolutionary societies in Tiflis seize the reins of government — garrison goes over to the revolution — the great meeting in the Nahalofsky Square on Sunday March 18th — the gathering of all the races of the Caucasus — I witness the first elections for the Caucasus Union of Soldiers' and Workers' Delegates — observe its proletariat and anti-Bourgeois attitude from the outset — listen to peace speeches welcoming the immediate establishment of the International — receive a note to call on the Grand Duke Nicolas — meet the Grand Duke in the palace — his agitated appearance — he informs me that he recognizes the new regime in Russia — send off a telegram — find the palace sur- rounded by revolutionary guards — the Grand Duke becomes virtually a prisoner — his Cossacks go over to the revolution — he leaves for Europe — his character — his attitude towards democratic movements — his desire for a palace revolution to preserve the autocracy — I leave for Kars — meet a Tartar friend on the platform — " We have arrested them all " — see Kars in the hands of the revolutionaries — find my friend the Vice-Governor arrested — visit the executive of the Kars revolutionary Committee — notice the reconciliation of nationalities formerly hostile — see Tartars, Armenians, and Russians serving on the same committees — visit the Council of Soldiers' Delegates — return to Tiflis — the Tiflis Revolutionary Committee gets to work — its syndicalist method of formation — visit Mtschet — the Georgians
16
Contents
decide to elect their own Exarch — visit Elizabetopol for a Conference of the Tartars — news arrives about the progress of the revolution in Central Asia — the Turkestan Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates is formed — native Mohammedans work with representa- tives of Russian soldiers and colonists — the preliminary- programme of the Turkestan Council — equal rights for all nationalities — reversal of the " colonial " policy — the arrest of the Governor-General — the revolution reaches Bokhara — the Emir's attempt to crush it — the Russian Resident supports him — the arrival of the revolutionary soldiers from Tashkent and Samarkand — the Emir of Bokhara declares a Constitution — the revolution among the Cossacks — I cross the Cossack steppes — observe the formation of the Council of Soldiers' Delegates among the Cossacks — mountain tribesmen and Cossacks serve on the same Committee — Tersk Cossacks declare for a republic — causes of the spread of revolutionary ideas among the Cossacks — the widespread influence of the Russian Revolution in Asia — the downfall of old des- potisms— its influence on India — will Western Europe follow the Star in the East ?
17
INTRODUCTION
THE ERZERUM REGION fo illustrate
Military operations Jan. & Feb. 1916. (Scale 6 Versts to 1")
Turkish Positions of Defence. .
,, Lines oP attack.
Russian Positions of Defence. .
, , L in es of attack. .
BLACK SEA
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B
M K S O F> O TAM I A
PHYSICAL MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN CAMPAIGN (1914—1917) AND ALSO THE AUTHOR'S JOURNEYS.
Main Mountain Ranges > Volcanic Plateaus ~ A Turkish Sarikamish offensive Dec jgw
. B - » Dilman „
. C Russian Van „
. D Turkish Alashgerl n E Pussian Erzeruni F »? Erzinjan.
G tftfSSTff^l OgnuJ-
* Turkish] miles
/toy 7975 »* *»
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WAR AND REVOLUTION IN ASIATIC RUSSIA
INTRODUCTION
If we look at a map of the old hemisphere, we shall be struck with two important facts. We shall first observe that what is known as Europe is a westerly projection of the much greater continent of Asia ; and secondly that there are two passages between these two portions of the continent. One of these passages leads from the deserts of Central Asia across a wide plain into Central Europe and covers what is known politically as Russia ; and the other, a narrower one, leads from the plateaux in the heart of Asia across a projecting promontory, known as Asia Minor, into south-eastern Europe. These two passages are separated from each other by a depres- sion filled with water, which is the Black Sea. People in the heart of the continent, if they wish to move west, must cross by one or other of these two passages. For the sake of convenience let us call them the gateways between the two portions of the continent.
Now if we think of the great events of human history that have helped to build up modern Europe, such as the rise of Greek civilization, the birth of Christianity, the fall of Constantinople and the invasion of Russia by the Tartars, we shall see that they have all taken
21
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
place either in or near these two passages. It would seem in fact as if from the earliest times action and re- action, movements and counter-movements, have been going on between the peoples of Europe and Asia. What has caused this continuous unrest ? One may attribute it perhaps to religious impulses, like that which in- spired the Arabs, or to abstract ideas, which aimed at giving to mankind a uniform political and legal system, such as those which moved the Romans. This explanation will only suffice if we assume that the impulses which lead man to change his modes of thought and his habits of life, come direct from the " free spirit ", untrammelled by the chains of material existence. If that is so, then these spiritual movements cannot be traced to peculiari- ties of climate or geography. But if on the other hand they are connected with the material side of life, then the structure of continents, their temperature, soil and climates, must influence the human types that live there, and must affect the forms of society and the different political and religious movements that take place there.
Now Central Asia is a huge expanse of alternating high plateau and low plain, divided by great ranges of mountains. The climate of one part of it is widely different from that of another. Physical obstacles have prevented the people of Asia from uniting in one common political system. The history of Central Asia from the Islamic renaissance to the Mongol Empire may be regarded as an attempt to create this unit}7. But the caprices of nature have always frustrated the ideals of man. The rulers of the Bactrian oases could subject their own neighbours, but they could not make their influence felt beyond the Pamirs or the Tian-shan. The Bedouin
22
Introduction
shepherds of Arabia, inspired with the simple faith of Islam, were ignorant teachers and but transitory rulers of the refined Persians of Isfahan. Two separate types of humanity can be observed in Central Asia from the earliest times down to this day. There are the inhabitants of the oases, who live a sedentary life, and are able with little labour to satisfy their material needs. On the other hand the nomads of the mountains and deserts are obliged to resort in years of drought to raids on their neighbours' territory, or else to go hungry. Such extremes of severity and luxury have produced these two types of men ; one the submissive peoples of the oases, prone to abstract thought, with their schools of philosophy and their mystic sects ; the other, predatory by instinct, and from time to time sending forth hordes of invaders with their tyrant emperors.
For these reasons a stable political system in Central Asia has been hitherto impossible. Hungry nomads to this day periodically invade the fertile oases ; and in earlier times they often banded together and pushed their migrations far into the West. The Mongols, Tartars and Osmanlis, whose movements had such a profound effect upon Eastern Europe, are all examples of this process. Following the lines of least resistance, they passed through the two gateways between Europe and Asia, the Russian plain and the Asia Minor plateau.
The reverse movement from West to East has also been taking place. Europe for the last hundred years has slowly, but systematically, penetrated western Asia and established its economic influence there. Now the western peninsula of the Europeo-Asiatic continent has to a large degree acquired a common standard of culture
23
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
and ideals, and has been saved from the instability which results when fierce nomads live, as in Asia, beside defence- less oasis-dwellers. Protected from these hordes in the middle ages by the races which inhabited the Russian plain and the Asia Minor plateau, European man com- menced his political and cultural development as soon as the Reformation had cast off the shackles of ecclesi- asticism, and set free the spirit of reason and enquiry. Assisted by an even climate and a soil of moderate fertility, he learnt early to develop the material side of civilization, and to conquer nature by the arts and crafts. Accumulations of energy stored up in the form of capital were then exported abroad. The tide of human movement turned to Asia once more, and Europe began to swing back the pendulum, which the Turanian hordes had pushed towards her in the middle ages. Again the " gate- ways " between the two halves of the continent became the scene of race-movement and political struggle. The first move was made by the Slavs, who began their migrations eastwards as far back as the nth century. They took as their sphere the northern gateway, or the Russian plain. To the lot of the Western Powers, some centuries later, after the decline of the Ottoman Empire, fell the southern gateway. Then began the competition between the Powers of Europe over the Balkans, and over rail- way concessions in Asiatic Turkey. All these movements and conflicts were indications of Europe's " Drang nach Osten ".
Besides the eastern and western movements through the two " gateways " of Europe and Asia, one can also trace all along the centuries a movement from North to South. For many centuries the nomad races from the
24
Introduction
Russian plain have passed across the narrow isthmus of the Caucasus, which connects the northern with the southern gateways. In very early times the Parthians invaded Persia by this route, and established their dynasty there. So also in the middle ages did the Scythians and Alans. In recent times the Russians have done the same, penetrating North Persia and Armenia by way of the Trans-Caucasus. These movements may be attri- buted to the natural tendency of a people, living in a temperate or sub-arctic region, to establish commercial relations with the peoples of sub-tropical countries.
Thus we observe three principal trends of race move- ment in the regions that lie between Europe and Asia. There is first the movement from Asia to Europe (now at an end) ; then there is the movement from Europe to Asia, which is taking place at the present day ; and, thirdly, there is the movement from the Russian plain into the southern gateway across the isthmus of the Trans-Caucasus. In all these we can trace the effect of economic necessity. The exchange of sub-arctic timber and cereals for southern cotton and fruit establishes a close relation between the Russians and the people of the Middle East. The existence also of undeveloped regions in the southern "gateway" gives the financial interests of Europe the opportunity to export capital and acquire spheres of exclusive economic rights. As a result the financial groups of Europe have contended with each other for this Eastern booty, while the proletariat, not yet organized sufficiently to control the production of wealth and the application of capital, has become the victim of wars for "spheres of influence". It is no accident, therefore, that this great war has been fought
25
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
not only on European battlefields, but far away in Mesopotamian deserts, Armenian plateaux, and Persian oases. For in these regions lie the prizes for the financial " interests " of London, Paris and Berlin. In these Eastern dominions also the now vanished Court of the Romanoffs hoped to find governorships and vice- royalties for Grand Dukes. Thus in that region of Asia lying in a triangle between the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf, all the conflicting interests of East and West meet to-day, just as they met during the migrations of the nomads in the middle ages. In the struggle that has ensued, the Caucasus campaign has played no mean part.
In order more clearly to understand the political problems of the Middle East, let us consider a little more in detail the geographical and ethnological char- acters of these regions. Asia in its main physical features consists of a system of mountain chains and parallel plateaux running from the Far East of the Chinese Empire to the threshold of South -East Europe. In its most westerly limit this great plateau is narrowed down to the area between the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf : but owing to compression in this comparatively small space, the plateau is puckered and folded into a number of regions varying greatly in altitude and consequently in climate. Each climatic zone and geographical region possesses its corresponding human type, and hence we find between the Caucasus mountains and the Levant a most varied assortment of human beings, each type with its own culture and social habits. The region with the lowest altitude of all is found along the coast of the Black Sea and the Levant. The whole of this region
26
Introduction
has a uniform sub-tropical climate, producing the same kind of vegetation and the same human type all along its sea-board. Shut in by high ranges of mountains, this narrow strip of coast-line is protected from the cold plateau winds, and moistened by the soft sea breezes. The produce of the tiny maize-fields, perched up amid forested slopes, and the fruit of the terraced vineyards, which surround the red-tiled houses, are brought along narrow by-ways to the cool bazaar towns, from which they are transported by ship to the West. Thus the inhabitants of this coast are by nature a race of small cultivators of sub-tropical produce, merchants and mariners. From the earliest times the waves of Greek civilization have lapped along these shores, and the people, though their racial origins are various, have turned their eyes in each successive generation to the mother- cities of Athens and Constantinople. Their commercial life brings them into constant contact with the maritime peoples of the West, and tends to make them keen business men. Their great historic past, and their position on a sea highway, have made them politicians with imperialist leanings. The sub-tropical climate also in which they live, and the moderate degree of leisure which most of them can enjoy, have been favourable conditions for controversial and speculative thought.
Behind the ranges bordering the sea-coast the country opens out into the wide table-land of Anatolia,1 varying from 2,500 to 4,000 feet above sea-level. The tempera-
1 The Greek name for Asia Minor, corresponding to the "Levant" of the Italians — the "Orient," or "Land of the Rising Sun." Anatolia is by the Greeks strictly limited to Asia Minor; Levante is by the Italians extended to all the lands lying East of the Mediterranean, and Orient is applied to the East in general.
27
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
ture of this region is continental and extreme, ranging from the heat of the sub-tropical zone in summer to the cold of the sub-arctic zone in winter. Irrigated oases are found in many parts of the plain, and grazing areas in the mountains. But the difference between life in the mountains and life in the plateau plains is not so sharp as it is in the regions farther to the east, in Armenia and Persia. This is largely due to the more broken structure of the table-land, the pastoral country being interspersed among the land suitable for oasis cultivation. Thus the people of Anatolia are roughly speaking of one type. They are village-dwellers and corn-growers at one time of the year, and tent-dwellers and cattle-grazers at another. There is not that strong permanent distinction between shepherd and agricul- turist which is found farther to the east. The political history of Anatolia has been largely determined by the fact that it is situated at the converging points of all the land routes between Central Asia and South-East Europe. It has thus become the channel for race movements of all kinds. Invading hordes of nomads shook the foundations of its society at one time, while at another wandering bands of Dervishes inspired it with the ideas and thoughts of the Madrasas (colleges) of Isfahan and Tabriz. Periods of disturbance alternated with periods of reconstruction, during which the invading elements became modified by the native elements of the plateau. Fierce Tartars were tamed by a few genera- tions of life on the quiet upland pastures of Angora ; the human driftwood that crossed the plateau has been gradually converted by agricultural pursuits into materials for a military Empire. Anatolia has received
28
Introduction
from the earliest times the outpourings of Europe and Asia ; but she has always reduced them to her one single type of humanity — agricultural, pastoral and military.
Coming to the regions to the east of Anatolia, we observe a considerable rise in the table-land. Here the table-lands lie at an average height of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet, and the mountain ranges from 7,000 to 10,000 feet. The cause of these high altitudes is the large outpourings of volcanic detritus, which has raised the level of the land by some 1,000 to 2,000 feet, leaving on either side, to the east and west, the lower levels of the Persian and Anatolian table-lands.1 The climate of Armenia is in the main sub-arctic. The long cold winters render wheat and barley the only cereals that will endure the atmospheric conditions. Irriga- tion is less necessary than in Anatolia, for the rains of the short summer months generally provide for the needs of vegetation. The severe climate of the plateau breeds a hard and vigorous race of agriculturists and shepherds. But, unlike Anatolia, Armenia has never been able to unite her nomad and settled populations. The regions suitable for pastoral pursuits are geographi- cally quite distinct from the agricultural regions, and so two economic types have been formed and have become quite stereotyped.
The great mountain system of the eastern Taurus from Diarbekr to the Persian frontier is generally known as Khurdistan.1 It consists of parallel ranges and rugged valleys between 7,000 and 10,000 feet high, where the rigorous climate permits only sheep and cattle-grazing. In favoured spots barley can be grown ;
1 See Map. 29
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
and those that occupy themselves with this, hibernate during the winter in underground houses. But over the greater part of these regions the natives live in tents and migrate to the lowlands in the winter. In the parallel range of the Ala-Dag, farther to the north, although this is not, strictly speaking, Khurdistan, the same conditions as those in the Taurus are repeated on a smaller scale. Throughout these two mountain regions the predominant population are of Iranian extraction and are known as Khurds. The climatic conditions under which they live are very severe. A great struggle for existence is necessary, to enable them to wring sustenance for their families from the land. Thus there is created a hardy and virile race, always ready for expansion, to relieve the pressure of popu- lation. Hence also its tendency to restlessness and to turbulent encroachments on its neighbours, which is so frequently observed among the Khurds.
The other region of the Armenian plateau lies at the lower levels of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, where the country opens out into wide, sweeping downs, covered with layers of volcanic soil. Here the Armenians are found in numbers varying from 25 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the population. It is often imagined that the Armenians are a commercial people like the Greeks ; but this idea is far from accurate. The Armenians are essentially agri- cultural, and their ancestors, from the dawn of history, have cultivated corn in the basin of Lake Van and the plain of Mush. In these regions life can only be sustained by hard work, and the Armenian peasant is forced to be more practical and industrious than his neighbours in the fertile oases of Persia. On the other hand Nature
30
Introduction
is not so hard upon him as she is upon the Khurd, whom she almost overwhelms in the struggle for existence. The soil of the Van and Mush plains can even produce sufficient to enable the people to support a leisured class and develop a culture of their own. There is no exuber- ance of luxury, such as in the Persian oases tends to produce all kinds of hot-house culture. But the numerous monasteries of the Van basin and the Mush plain testify to the cult of art and letters among the Armenians at a very early date. The Armenian's ideas of life have settled down into a simple creed — a practical form of Christianity. He has brought reason and logic to bear upon the problems of life, and in this respect he is not unlike the Bulgarian, whose mode of existence is very similar. Both these peoples differ markedly from the Greeks and Georgians with their acute intellect and passion for controversy. The separate development of the Armenian Church, and its steady refusal to unite with the Greek and Georgian Churches, is undoubtedly connected with the difference in temperament of the two peoples.
In the region to the east of Armenia and Khurdistan the land sinks into the lower levels of Persia. The mountain ranges that run across Anatolia from west to east, and are covered in part by the volcanic eruptions of Armenia, reappear with a slight south-easterly bend in Western Persia. The Iranian plateau is less sharply divided than Armenia by great ranges of mountains. True, the Elburz range on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and the Bakhtiari mountains along the northern shores of the Persian Gulf, form barriers against movements from north and south. But apart
3i
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
from these impediments, movements along the plateau are easy, and roads lead travellers south-east to India, north-east to Turkestan, west to Armenia, and south- west to Mesopotamia. Persia therefore, not less than Armenia, has been the track for races moving from the farther parts of Asia through the southern " gateway " into Europe. But while Armenia has been the scene of passing hordes, destroying and enslaving, Persia has succeeded in assimilating the invaders to herself, and passing the newly formed humanity on to the West. It has therefore played a very impor- tant part in the history of the peoples inhabiting the southern "gateway", and it is necessary to see what circumstances have brought this about. The climate of the Iranian plateau presents a marked contrast to that of Anatolia, and an even greater contrast to that of Armenia. The Central Asian table-land east of Armenia, as I mentioned above, tilts slightly south-east, causing the mountains and plains of Western Persia to lie between latitudes 30 and 39, i.e. some three or four degrees south of the latitude of Armenia and Anatolia. The levels of the plateaux lie from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, i.e., from 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher than those of the Anatolian plains, and 1,000 to 1,500 feet lower than those of Armenia. On the assumption there- fore that altitude compensates for latitude, one would expect that the climate of Western Persia would be similar to that of Anatolia. But here another factor comes in. The farther one goes east across the Central Asian plateau, the less one feels the moistening influences of sea breezes. Thus the rainfall coming from the sea, which is precarious in Anatolia, is entirely absent over
32
Introduction
the greater part of Persia, while, owing to the more southerly latitudes, tremendous dry heat is experienced in the summer months. The little rivers flowing from the low mountain ranges of the plateau trickle down on to the plain, and would dry up in the parching desert, were they not instantly caught up by the thousand irriga- tion canals built by the natives to water their vineyards, melon-gardens and rice-fields. Conditions exist for in- tensive cultivation unknown in Anatolia and Armenia, and thus the cultivation of fruit and rice has become the great industry of the Persian oases. The unsurpassed excellence of Persia's sub-tropical produce has given rise to a great trade with the inhabitants of the Russian plain to the north. This has materially enriched its people and has enabled them, in spite of invasions and disturbances, to develop a high culture. Throughout all the ages, in spite of Mongol, Tartar and Arab invasions and devastations, Nature through the agency of the fertile oases has restored to Iran the damage inflicted on her by man, and has given the Persian that material wealth which has enabled him to build up a culture of undying fame. Every foreign race that has subdued Persia politically, has within a short period become cultur- ally assimilated to her. The barbarian Hulagu Khan who overran her in the 13th century was the founder of the Ilkhan dynasty, which within a generation had accepted Islam and acquired Persian names. Iran has always been the creator of abstract ideas, philosophies, mysteries, and schools of thought, which she has sent forth to the East and to the West.
But the oasis-dwellers do not form the only element in the population. Like Armenia, Persia has been afflicted
33 c
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
by race questions, though the results have been different. Both countries contain two races living side by side, one a settled, and the other a nomad population. What the Khurds in the upper Tigris valley are to the Armenians, the Lurs and Bakhtiaris on the edge of the Iranian table- land are to the Persians of the oases. But while in Armenia the nomad and settled populations maintain each its separate existence, in Persia there is continually going on a fusion of the one type with the other. The mountain tribes are constantly descending and raiding the plain ; but instead of being resisted, as in Armenia, numbers of them adopt Persian customs and culture, and finally become absorbed as natives of the oasis. The Armenian climate on the other hand creates a stub- born people, that resists nomad invasions ; hence the continual conflict between Khurd and Armenian, and the sufferings of the settled population. But living in the luxury of the oases, the Persian has lost all desire to fight invaders : he welcomes all, and conquers them by other means than force. The atmosphere of the isolated bazaar- town, with its cool Mosques and dignified Madrasas, calls forth the spirit of compromise in dealing with hungry tribes camped outside the gate. In Persia there has never been a government in the European sense of the word. Some tribal chief among the nomads, or some caravan-thief, collects followers and proclaims himself governor of a province. He becomes governor and per- haps Shah, and founds a dynasty. The people of the oases submit, and go on with their fruit-growing and mysticism. The Persian is always being conquered by the sword, but in turn always subdues the conqueror by his intellect.
34
Introduction
North of the Persian and Armenian table-land we come to the isthmus between the Caspian and Black Seas. Along this isthmus runs the great Caucasus range, which rises like a wall out of the Russian plain on the north, and is bordered on the south by the rolling downlands of Georgia. The whole of this region forms the land- communication between the Russian plain on the one side, and the Armenian and Iranian table-land on the other. It is thus a sort of corridor or side-passage between the northern and southern gateways of Europe and Asia. The Caucasian isthmus is, geographically, very com- plex. The main range contains rocky valleys and secluded corners, where the racial drift of ages has been stranded, and can be seen to this day. A northern spur of the volcanic Armenian highlands, known as the Kars plateau, comes at one point (a little south of Tiflis) within a short distance of the main Caucasus range.1 South-east of the range also the land rises in the Kara Dag uplift on to the Iranian plateau. Between the Armenian and Iranian plateaux and the main range of the Caucasus there is an expanse of open plain and downland lying at levels of 1,500 to 2,500 feet. Protected by the great Caucasus range on the north from the winds of the steppes, and by the Kars plateau on the south from the cold of Armenia, this region, known as Georgia, is favoured with a mild winter and a hot summer. It has, moreover, an abun- dant rainfall, thanks to the proximity of the Black Sea and the absence of any large mountains to catch the rain-bearing winds from this quarter. The climate of Georgia is thus between the sub-tropical conditions of
« See Map. 35
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
the Black Sea coast and the sub-arctic conditions of the Armenian plateau. The vine flourishes, along with cereals, without irrigation, on a rich and easily tilled soil. Forests on the hill-sides assist the husbandry of man. The Georgians, who are the most important representatives of the native races of the isthmus, are thus favoured by nature with an even climate and a good soil. They have in times past reached a high degree of wealth and culture. The absence of the unmeasured luxury of the oases of Persia has prevented them from de- veloping an excessive aesthetic tendency. The comparative ease with which they can gather the produce of their cornfields and vineyards contrasts with the difficulties besetting the Armenian peasants on the Van plateau. They are therefore a more easygoing people, with a gentler and more pleasant nature than the Armenians. A temperate climate and a condition of moderate ease, together with intercourse with the West, makes the Georgian very similar in type to the Roumanian, the Servian and the Little Russian. Some, however, of the Western Georgians (Imeretians, Gurians and Min- grelians) show a marked resemblance to the Greek cultural type. Living on the sea-board in constant contact with the Greeks, these people have developed the commercial instinct, and the political, controversial type of mind. But the inhabitants of the rolling hill-country between Kutais and Tiflis are more quiescent in temper. The impressions of nature around them, the sight, of waving cornfields, shady vineyards, forested hills and distant snow-mountains, have become woven into their lives, and have given them the strain of mysticism characteristic of the
36
Introduction
Slav. In sonic parts of Georgia, especially in the valley of the Rion, malaria is prevalent, and tends to weaken the vitality of the natives. The country inhabited by the Georgians is therefore very varied, and the human types are numerous. Nevertheless they are all united by one common tie, the Greek tradition of Christianity, which has made them look to the West for culture, and to the North for protection. The mutual sympathy between Slav and Georgian has played no small part in uniting these two peoples politically ; and the Russian advance into the Caucasus was very materially assisted by the presence beyond the mountain ranges of a race of co-religionists. Thanks to the sympathy of Georgia, a voluntary union with the Russian Empire became possible, enabling the latter to extend its influence into the Trans-Caucasus and on to the Armenian plateau. The Georgians have always been a people in Asiatic surroundings, looking wistfully towards Europe. In earlier days they looked to Greece for their culture and religion ; more lately they have become the political allies of the Eastern Slavs.
We thus see that the region lying in the triangle between the Caucasus mountains, the Black Sea, and the Persian Gulf, generally known as the Middle East, con- tains very diverse physical and climatic zones. Each zone produces its special human type with its own mode of life and industry. Each of these types correspondingly affects the political systems of these regions. Thus the sea-board has created a mariner and trading race with a restless character and a capacity for politics. The inhabitants of the highest plateaux are hard-working, but their country is broken into rugged mountain masses,
37
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
where live simple and hungry nomads. Between these two elements political fusion has been impossible. The oasis regions on the other hand have created the most cultured types of humanity, ever absorbing the raw nomads from the mountain and desert. All of these human types have played their part in the history of the Eastern Question to a greater or a less extent. Their countries have become bones of contention between the Western Powers, competing for political and economic influence there. For with the development of capital- ism and industrialism in the last century, the raw material wealth of these regions has become valuable. It is possible, therefore, to interpret the political con- troversies that have affected this southern gateway between Europe and Asia, as a struggle of outside influences for the possession of trade routes and spheres of influence.
The material instincts of man, which have always urged him to increase the products of nature to his advan- tage, have led him from earliest times to look beyond his own valley, and to exchange what he has for something belonging to his neighbour. The exchange, if it took place voluntarily, became trade ; if involuntarily, and under the influence of superior force, imperial exploitation. In early times, when man's power over nature was not yet strengthened by science, the relations between peoples generally took the form of exchange of raw materials. The temperate regions of Europe and the sub-arctic Russian plain produced hides, tallows and furs, which were readily exchanged for the sub-tropical products of the Levant, the Persian and Mesopotamian oases. Thus there sprang up across the southern gateway a
38
Introduction
whole series of trade routes along which this traffic used to pass. Imperial Powers like Rome and Byzantium, and armed Merchant Guilds like Genoa and Venice, used to struggle for the possession of these great trade routes, six of which can be discerned crossing the southern " gateway " during the middle ages. The most southerly one was controlled by the Greek mariners, who, starting from Hellas, visited in their ships every bay and natural harbour of the Levant. This important sea-route was continued overland from the Syrian coast to the Mesopo- tamian oases by way of Palmyra. Farther north came the great land route across Asia Minor, which led from the coast of Lydia to Mesopotamia. The control of the trade that passed this way frequently changed hands, as the imperial power of Byzantium or the Caliphate waxed or waned. In the 14th century the invasion of Turkish nomads and the fall of the Greek Empire caused the exchange between East and West along this line to dwindle. It was only renewed when the Western Powers in the 19th century commenced their colonial expansion.
Across Armenia during the middle ages went a third route, which, starting from the Greek sea-board at Trebi- zond, passed through the city of Ani and ended in the fertile oases of northern and central Persia. There were many suzerain powers along this route — Byzantium, the Armenian kings, the Caliphate and the Shahs. The fortunes of each varied, but with the decline of the influence of the Armenian kings, who were squeezed between the Eastern and Western Powers, most of the authority along this route after the 12th century passed to the Greek Empire and Tartar Khans, who divided the tribute and royalties between them.
39
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
The fourth, fifth, and sixth trade routes passed across the southern "gateway" from the Russian plain. Very early in their history the Slavs began to exchange the produce of their northern forests for that of the sub- tropical oases, and to carry on this trade along definite routes. The first of these came from the South of the Dnieper and passed across the Black Sea to Constanti- nople. The second left the steppes north of the Sea of Azov, and connected with the shores of the Caspian, whence merchandise passed either by land or water to the Persian oases. The third came down the Volga from the northern part of the Russian plain, and reached the north shores of Persia through the Caspian. The desire to control these three important trade routes led the Tzars of Moscow to embark upon their eastern campaigns. From these times dates the expansion of the Russian Empire in Asia, the conquest of the Caucasus, and the penetration of Turkestan and Persia.
Looking at the directions in which trade between Europe and Western Asia flowed during the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, we observe that they are almost identical with those in the middle ages. The maritime trade of the eastern Mediterranean, for- merly controlled by the Greeks, is now under the sea power of the British Empire. One important change, however, has been made. The opening of the Suez Canal has diverted the trade that once went overland to Persia and India via Syria, and sends it now direct by sea. The second route, passing from the West by land across Asia Minor, follows tQ-day almost exactly the same line as in the middle ages. The only difference is that the merchandise is carried by the German Bagdad
40
Introduction
railway instead of by Arab camel caravans. Of the third route across Armenia little remains. Before the European war some Western goods were carried from Trebizond to north Persia via Erzerum and Bayazid ; but the importance of this trade was fast declining as the economic exchange between the Russian plain and the Persian oases developed. This trade is carried by the railways from Central Russia to Baku, and thence by sea to the north Persian coast. Another branch of it comes down the Volga. In both these cases the trade takes exactly the same line as was taken in the middle ages. On account of the valuable natural resources tapped by this route, (resources only now made realizable under modern industry,) the trade from the Russian plain to Persia is likely to become one of the principal exchanges between the East and West in the future. Along this route will flow the cereal products of the Cossack steppes, North Caucasus oil and the rice and dried fruits of Persia. The construction, therefore, of a Trans-Persian railway is one of the most important enterprises of the future. The fifth great trade route of the present day across the southern "gateway" follows the line taken by the ancient Greeks from the Sea of Azov and the mouth of the Dnieper through the Turkish Straits. Along it will pass the corn exports of Russia to the Western world.
Thus we see that with some modifications the exchange between the productive regions of East and West across the southern " gateway " passes along the same routes as it did in the middle ages. Each route is controlled by one of the European Powers, which competes with its neighbouring Power for these channels of communi-
4i
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
cation. Formerly Byzantium, Rome and the Caliphate used to collect imperial tribute from the merchandise that passed by, but to-day the prizes are sought in exclusive mining and irrigation rights along the course of the railways, and preferential rates in favour of the trade of one or other Power. We have seen how this competition for spheres of influence is a fertile cause of war ; and the danger will not be eliminated until the proletariat of the western countries unites and takes the control of the export of capital into its own hands. When that day arrives the whole face of the Eastern Question will be changed. But until that time, inter- national settlements will always be endangered by the imperial " financial interests ", that seek to carve out for themselves monopoly " rights " in undeveloped regions of the earth. If these "rights" are not controlled, the settlement of the Eastern Question will probably be made on the lines of the abortive agreement over the future of Asiatic Turkey negotiated by the European Powers in 1913 and 1914. Thus instead of an inter- national agreement between the proletariat of all lands to distribute and apply all the surplus capital of Europe for the development of these regions on a common plan, we shall have the old form of agreement between the capitalists of the Powers to divide the spoils among themselves. The ideal solution can only be ob- tained if the proletariat of the whole world develops suffi- cient class-consciousness to realize its true interest and act accordingly. Failing this, we can at any rate hope that even among the propertied and ruling classes of Europe there will at last be some recognition of the signs of the times, and that they will begin to survey
42
Introduction
the Eastern Question from the point of view of " world economics". For the common interests of mankind cannot much longer be thwarted by the parasitical few. A revolution of ideas is no less the interest of the European bourgeoisie than of the proletariat.
In the last hundred years European sciences have conquered distances, made hitherto remote regions of the earth accessible, and have tended to cosmopolitanize industries of public utility. If they have not overcome the financial groups that work for private profit, they have at least made great enterprises matters of world interest. Across the trunk lines and through the great ports will go, if allowed, the goods of all nations. It will not be such an easy thing in future to establish a trade monopoly in far-off seas, or claim, as special pre- serves, points where land and sea routes meet. The muni- cipal commercial unit of the middle ages expanded, till in the course of time it became the national unit. In the 19th century the national has become the Imperial trading unit. It is therefore in keeping with the evolution of things that the Imperial unit should develop into the International right. Now how does this affect that vital point in the southern " gateway " where land and sea routes cross each other — that is, Constantinople and the Straits ? There has now come into being a great trunk line, the shortest and most direct route between Europe and the Middle East, which goes straight across this point. Under modern industrial conditions, railways can successfully compete with sea routes for the carriage of all but the bulkiest materials. The Bagdad railway and the land route between Europe and the Persian Gulf is therefore
43
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
a great economic world-factor. The unhindered passage of trade through this point is to the interest of all, not merely proletarian, Europe. With Constantinople a free port under an international commission, on which all the world Powers and the smaller States are represented, neither the manufacturing export firms of the Central Powers nor the financial interests of London or Paris will be adversely affected. Through-traffic from America, France and England will pass through Germany and Austria on its way to Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, and the rates along the line will not discriminate in favour of the manufacturers of the Central Powers. If it is impossible as yet to obtain a settlement on the basis of internationalizing all the undeveloped areas of Western Asia, the next best thing is to internationalize those points where great trunk lines meet, or where important trade routes cross. The unhindered flow of merchandise at the vital points of the world's economy would then be secured. It would remain to control the flow of capital. In the meantime, the intervening spaces be- tween these vital points could be handed over as special spheres of influence for the capitalist groups of the Western Powers. The irrigation and mining works of Anatolia could go to the Central Powers, those of Lower Mesopotamia to Great Britain. Beyond these regions would come the territories traversed by the future Trans- Persian railway. As a great highway of world impor- tance, this should be brought under the same kind of international control as the Turkish Straits.
We have now looked at this region of the Middle East from many points of view. WTe have examined its geo- graphical and climatic features, its human types and their
44
Introduction
methods of living. We have seen how its different regions have been the object of competition between the Im- perialist governments of Europe ; how the trunk routes, along which economic exchange passes, have developed throughout the centuries, and how contention for the control of these routes has been an important factor in the circumstances leading up to the great war. We have even ventured to forecast a possible solution of these problems on an international basis. But enough has been said to show that the region between the Caucasus, Black Sea and Persian Gulf has played a great part in international politics before the war, and will be of no less importance in the economic development of the world's resources after it. In the following chapter we shall see what part Russia's military forces played in the Eastern campaign that followed the outbreak of the great war, and what effect this campaign is likely to have on the final settlement of those regions.
45
PART I
MILITARY HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS CAMPAIGN (1914-16)
CHAPTER I
EARLY STAGES OF THE CAMPAIGN (1914-1915)
Contemporary writers on the history of the war are inclined to turn the whole of their attention to Europe, as though they were unaware of any events of importance outside Belgium, France, or Poland. The idea of hurling masses of men against Germany's West flank got such a firm hold upon the public mind from the first days of the war, that two very weighty considerations were almost entirely ignored. First, it was forgotten that the mere hurling of raw masses in overwhelming numbers does not decide the fate of a modern campaign. This has been proved by the Germans themselves, who by organization and technical skill have largely succeeded, in spite of inferior numbers, in holding their West front, while they were advancing victoriously against Russia's millions. Secondly, it was forgotten that very important victories might be won without crushing Germany's military forces in Europe at all. For instance, the professed object of the war would have been attained if, as the result of intelligent political propaganda on the part of the Allies, the German masses had learnt that their real enemy was in their own country. But even if the war be considered less in terms oi ideas than of more material
49 d
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
aims, such as the conquest of Eastern markets, spheres of influence for financial interests, control over trunk railways, etc., we shall see that substantial victories could have been gained without this hurling of millions against Germany's lines in Belgium and France. The war, in fact, on its purely strategical side, ought to have been regarded as extending far beyond the confines of Europe. For by occupying parts of the Middle East, and by driving the Turks out of Mesopotamia, S}aia, and Persia, the Allies would have completely eliminated the influence of the Central Powers from these Eastern markets and areas of exploitation. The capture of Constantinople, indeed, would have put the solution of the whole Eastern Question entirely into the hands of the Allies, and Germany would have been definitely confined to Europe, as a State with no colonial future. Thus the theatre of warfare both in Europe and Asia should have been regarded from the outset as a fiery ring surrounding the peoples of Central Europe, and the task of a united Allied Staff, if such could ever have been obtained, would have been to close this ring ever tighter round the prisoners.
Now the Caucasus campaign, when looked at from this point of view, becomes no mere insignificant skirmish in a third-rate area of war, but an important link in this chain surrounding the Central Powers. Along with the Mesopotamian and Egyptian campaigns, it has helped to decide which of the economic world-states is to control the southern " gateway " between Europe and Asia. There have been three competitors for this prize : the Central land Empires, the Western maritime Empire of Great Britain, and, before the Revolution, the land
50
Early Stages of the Campaign
Empire of Russia The fortune of war might give to any one of these the control of the southern " gateway", or else it might decide, as up to the present it has decided, in favour of a political Balance of Power in the Middle East, part of Mesopotamia and Arabia coming under Great Britain's influence, Anatolia and Upper Meso- potamia under Germany's, and Armenia under Russia's. Now all these territorial gains are cards which at the Peace Conference will play no insignificant role in the settlement of the Eastern Question. In so far, therefore, as military events affect the ultimate world-settlement, the Caucasus campaign of 1914-16 has its place in history.
In the period preceding the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, Russia had been engaged in consolidating the position in the Trans-Caucasus, which she had acquired by her voluntary union with the ancient kingdom of Georgia. This had given her a hold over the lowlands lying immediately South of the main range of the Caucasus, and had established her upon the first step of the ladder leading onto the Central Asian plateau. But after 1877, by the occupation of Kars, Russia acquired a footing upon the next step of the ladder in Greater Armenia. This region is, as it were, a bridge connecting Asia Minor and the Iranian plateau. The Central Asian plateau in its western extremity is founded upon two main ranges of mountains which are the spines of the continent ; these are the Taurus to the South, and the Anti-Taurus to the North, both running in a parallel direction East and West from Anatolia to Persia.1 The Taurus, start- ing along the south coast of Asia Minor, curves North-
1 See Map. 51
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
east in Cilicia, and then East in the Assyrian highlands a9 far as the Persian frontier, where it bends South-east, and is continued along the shores of the Persian Gulf in the Bakhtiari highlands. The Anti-Taurus commence •, East of Kaisarieh in Anatolia, and running in a North- easterly direction passes Sivas on the South and Erzinjan and Erzerum on the North, finally joining up with the Azairbijan mountain system East of Mount Ararat in the basin of the Middle Araxes. But this chain is broken in one place by the volcanic plateau of Kars and Erzerum, which is piled upon the Anti-Taurus chain, burying it under a mass of detritus. The whole of this plateau is a great volcanic bed composed of layers of lava and dykes, which were erupted here at a comparatively recent date in the earth's history. This volcanic activity has completely altered the original structure of the plateau, and has raised the level of the land some two thousand feet above the surrounding regions. Thus to the North of thi« great volcanic uplift lies the relative depression of the Chorokh Basin and the Upper Kura valley, so that the upper table-land is laid upon the older table-land of Georgia and Lazistan, while both of these two regions are one step higher than the coast of the Black Sea. On the highest volcanic table-land stand the two fortresses of Kars and Erzerum. It was natural that after Russia had established herself upon the northern strip of this volcanic plateau, she should make Kars her base, facing the Turkish base at Erzerum. These two fortresses were the pivots upon which the Russian Caucasus army and the Turkish Armenian army hinged their operations, since they were the commanding posi- tions on the highest of the plateaux. But it is clear
52
Early Stages of the Campaign
that no operations were possible here with safety, unless both sides had secured themselves against flanking move- ments of the enemy in the depressions on each side of the plateau.1 To the North lay the depression of the Chorokh valleys, through which a Turkish army could pass by a short cut into the valleys of the upper Kura and the fertile lands of Georgia, thus cutting off the Caucasian army at Kars from Tiflis. To the South lay the broken country of the Mush and Bitlis vilayets, across which a low range runs parallel with the Taurus and Anti-Taurus. This South Armenian volcanic plateau is much broken up by dykes and irregular outpourings of lava to the North and West of Lake Van.1 To the South rises the great barrier of the Taurus, passage through which is only possible by the defiles caused by faults and fractures. But a Turkish army, once estab- lished in this South Armenian plateau, would be able to break through into the depression of the lower Araxes, and so outflank from the south-east the Russian base on the high plateau at Kars. On the other hand, it is clear that both these depressions, the Chorokh and the South Armenian plateau, could be used by the Russians (as they actually were) to turn the left and right flanks of the Turkish army, based on the highest plateau at Erzerum. The outflanking of the fortress-bases of their enemies was therefore the main problem before the Russian and Turkish Staffs in Greater Armenia.
Farther to the East, on the extreme Russian left and Turkish right, is the relative depression of the north- west Iranian table-land. Azairbijan extends between the basin of the lower Kura in Eastern Trans-Caucasus,
1 See Map 53
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
and the lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates. The basin of the Kura is of the utmost importance to Russia, as it is the railway and oil centre of the whole Caucasus ; while Mesopotamia is the region where the Bagdad railway is to end, and the scene of the great future development of European enterprise. The occupation of Azairbijan by Turkey would therefore threaten the industrial heart of the Caucasus, while its occupation by Russia would open the road to Mesopotamia, and forge the link between the British and Russian Empires in Asia, so as to surround the Central Powers and Turkey on the East. Azairbijan could be occupied by the Turks coming in from the West by the South Armenian plateau. Between the basins of Lake Van and Lake Urumiah there is no natural obstruction, for the ranges of Taurus and Anti-Taurus here run East and West, parallel with each other ; so that once a Turkish force is in Van, it can easily drop down to Khoy, by the valley of the Kotur Chai. In the same way a Russian occupa- tion of the road-centre at Khoy, and of the Dilman and Urumiah plains, would make the whole Turkish position upon the South Armenian plateau insecure. Thus we see that the outer wing of the front in Persia was of great importance to the main Russian and Turkish positions.
When on October 31st, 1914, the war between the Central Powers and the Allies spread to the Asiatic fronts, the Caucasus army, which had been already mobilized, took the initiative at once. The 2nd and 3rd Army Corps had been previously transferred to the European front, leaving only the 1st and the 4th Caucasian Army Corps, and some frontier guards,
54
Early Stages of the Campaign
to hold the 3rd Turkish Army. This consisted of the 10th, nth and 12th Army Corps, which, with the Khurdish Hamidiehs and the gendarme regiments, numbered about 120,000 men. But the slowness of mobilization, and the lack of railways and good roads in Turkey, caused a delay of at least six weeks in bringing these forces into the field. The Russians meanwhile began to form a fresh force, which became the 2nd Turkestan Army Corps.
During the first days of November the Russian frontier troops advanced from Sary-Kamish and Kagisman in the Kars plateau over the hills into Turkish territory. Here they occupied a part of the Passan plain to the East of Erzerum in the Araxes valley. From Kagisman they occupied the Alasgert valley, while from Igdir on the Araxes they occupied Bayazid, just South of Mount Ararat. For the moment Russia was content with this success in occupying a small strip of Turkish territory parallel with the old frontier. The attention of the highest Russian command was at this moment chiefly occupied with the problems of the Polish and Galician fronts, where the plan of seriously invading Austria was still thought possible. For the Turks, on the other hand, the Caucasus front was the main interest. A con- ference had taken place at Erzerum during October between the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Turkish Armenians (described else- where, see Chapter VIII) in which a great plan was un- folded for invading the Caucasus, driving the Russians back to the Cossack steppes, and forming three autono- mous provinces under Ottoman suzerainty between the Black Sea and the Caspian. With this political object
55
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
in view, the Turkish military plans were laid for a grand offensive. As soon as the mobilization of the whole 3rd Army of the " Armenian Inspection Area " was completed, Enver Pasha himself came to take charge of the campaign. He was assisted by a German officer, von Schellendorf, as Chief of his Staff. It soon came to their knowledge that the Russian preparations in the Caucasus were not making very rapid progress, and that there were some weak spots in the long line across the plateau, stretching from the Black Sea to north- west Persia, particularly in the Olti region (middle Chorokh basin),1 where only a regiment of frontier troops had been put to guard the fortress of Kars and the supply-base of Sary-Kamish from flanking movements on the North. Some years before a Georgian officer, Amiradjibi, on the Russian General Staff for the Caucasian Army, had warned his colleagues of the danger of a flanking movement on Kars via the Olti depression. Little attention was paid to his warnings, because it was thought that the Bardus Pass, leading up from this depression on to the Kars plateau, was impassable for an army, especially during the winter, when it was known to be covered with snow. But the Caucasus Staff had not reckoned on the endurance of the Turkish soldier. Sending the 9th and 10th Army Corps into the Olti depression, and holding the main force of the Russians on the Passan plain with the nth Corps, Enver Pasha took the field in spite of frost and deep snow, which on December 3rd was falling fast all over the plateau. He was warned of the rashness of his plan by one of his Staff officers, who saw the danger of leading two Army
* See Map.
56
Early Stages of the Campaign
Corps into a roadless country in mid-winter with only horse and mule transport. But Enver Pasha hoped by initial success to find supplies to guarantee his further progress through the Caucasus. Up to a certain point his confidence was justified, for on December 15th he had entered Olti, driving the small Russian force out, and capturing prisoners and booty ; after which he and the 10th Army Corps crossed the Bardus Pass in the rear of the Russian army on the Passan plain, and on December 26th were within a few hours of Sary-Kamish, the Russian supply base. The Caucasus army was now literally surrounded. It was held in front by the nth Army Corps, while the 9th and 10th had suddenly appeared between them and their bases at Kars and Sary-Kamish. The Turks, however, had not yet occupied these two points. Their advanced posts were within 20 versts of the fortress of Kars ; and their extreme left, which had come up from the Olti depression, was east of Ardahan and within two days' march of Tiflis. But their main force was still on the wooded heights above Sary-Kamish. A terrific snow-storm had hampered the movements of its commander, Ishkhan Pasha, and prevented him from keeping in touch with his rear. In the valley below him lay Sary-Kamish, the Russian supply centre, where he would be safe, and from which he could demolish the Caucasus army at leisure, if he could only get there. But now the little Russian garrison in Sary-Kamish began to direct a vigorous artillery fire upon the hills above the little town. They had only one battery, and ammunition which would not last twelve hours against the force that was opposing them. But with the energy of despair they poured out all the shot they had, in the hope that relief
57
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
might come to them from Kars. lshkhan Pasha, thinking that he was confronted by a division instead of by one battalion, feared to advance. But now his ammunition was giving out, the snow-storm showed no signs of abating, and his men were being frozen and were suffering from hunger. Moreover by this time the Russian army on the Passan plain had somewhat recovered, and a successful regrouping of their forces had been undertaken by General Eudenitch (the Commander, General Meshlaefsky, having in the meantime run away to Tirlis). On January 2nd the left wing of the Russians, now facing north in the valley of Mezhingert, advanced to attack the half-frozen Turks on the heights above Sary-Kamish. In twenty- four hours the danger was over, and the Caucasus army was safe. lshkhan Pasha with the 9th Army Corps was taken prisoner, while of the 10th Army Corps half was captured, and the rest escaped over the Bardus Pass into Turkish territory. The Russians had passed through a serious crisis. Apart from the material losses, the effect of this blow on the morale of the native races in the Caucasus was not small. The Caucasus had been invaded, and whispers began to go round in the bazaars of Tirlis, Erivan and Kars, that a new Shamyl Beg would appear to welcome the Turks. The rest of the Winter of 1914-15 was spent, both by the Russians and by the Turks, who had suffered very heavily in men and guns, if perhaps they had gained in prestige, in strengthening their old positions and organizing their rear.
In the Spring the offensive again rested with the Turks, who decided now to pay attention to their extreme right wing in the Azairbijan province of Persia. During the Winter there had been some intriguing between Djevdet
58
Early Stages of the Campaign
Pasha, the commander at Van, and the Khan of Maku, a powerful Persian chief living in the corner of Azairbijan, where the Persian, Turkish and Russian Empires meet. The Sirdar Khan was believed by the Russians to have come to an understanding with the Turks to help them, if they invaded his corner of Persia. He was therefore removed, and his cousin put in his place. This some- what arbitrary violation of Persian neutrality was the result of a policy pursued for many years before the war. Persia had been rendered so weak by her revolution in 1909, that she had become unable to protect her own frontiers from violation, and the country had been revert- ing to the tribal state, in which any mountain brigand or caravan-thief, if he had sufficient support from the Russian consular and military authorities, could set himself up as a local ruler. Both Russian and Turkish forces had been roaming about the territory between Mount Ararat and Lake Urumiah for at least four years before the war ; so the temptation was now too strong, and Persia too weak, to prevent a considerable develop- ment here of military activity on both sides. During November a small Russian detachment, with a battalion of Armenian volunteers under Andranik, had advanced from Khoy, and in an engagement with the Turks west of Kotur had entered Turkish territory and occupied Serai. During the crisis at Sary-Kamish this force had retreated to the Persian frontier at Djulfa, whence it advanced again to Khoy in January 1915. At the same time the Turks were preparing a new division of Nizam troops under the command of the able Turkish general Halil Bey. This division left Mosul in March, and crossing the extreme eastern Taurus by the denies of
59
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
the Great Zab, reached the Urumiah plateau about the middle of April. Halil Bey's plan was the same as Enver Pasha's at the Sary-Kamish battle, namely, to advance into the enemy country, and trust to getting supplies on the way. He had to be very sparing in his use of ammunition, for unless he could capture large amounts, he could not be sure of replenishing his stock. Once his army had crossed the Taurus to the Persian plateau, he was absolutely cut off from all communication with his base. Such were the primitive methods employed by the Turks in their campaigns upon their extreme flanks. But no less remarkable was the daring of their com- manders, and the endurance of the askers in carrying out movements and attacking with vigour in these remote regions.
In occupying the rich Urumiah plain, and pushing up to the eastern shores of the lake to the plain of Dilman, Halil Bey was aiming at the Russian railhead at Djulfa, whence he hoped to cut across the plains of the lower Araxes to Baku. On the morning of May ist, 15,000 of his Nizams with 3,000 Khurdish cavalry were drawn up on the Dilman plain, facing a small Russian force numbering about 5,000, with 1,000 Armenian volunteers. The Russians had entrenched themselves very hastily, and were waiting for reinforcements from Djulfa. During the day the Turks attacked the village of Muganjik, but the Russians managed to hold their own by an effective use of artillery. On the second day Halil Bey sent his cavalry to get round the Russians in the hills on each side of Muganjik. With the greatest difficulty the Russians held out until dark, and then decided to retreat during the night, fearing that they could
60
Early Stages of the Campaign
not hold their positions for another day without help. Strange as it may seem, Halil Bey on the night of the 2nd also decided to evacuate the Dilman plain and retire into Turkish territory. His ammunition was running very low, and he saw no means of replenishing his stock even if he forced the Russians to retire. He had no wish to be left isolated in Azairbijan to face probable Russian reinforcements : he knew also that the Armenians at Van had risen in revolt on April 20th against Djevdet Pasha ; so he decided that it was wisest to retreat. The astonished Russians, just as they were evacuating the plain of Dilman, suddenly found themselves alone in possession of the field. Halil Bey retired by an unfre- quented route to the south-west across the Baradost and Gawar plateau into the upper waters of the Great Zab. From thence he passed by Bashkale to Nordus, where he entered the head-waters of the Tigris. March- ing westwards parallel with the Taurus, he traversed the wild country bordering the Assyrian highlands, and finally reached Bitlis. This retreat is characteristic of this wonderful Turkish general, for he succeeded in keeping the Russians off his track the whole way. They did not dare to follow him into the country through which he passed, for fear of being trapped, or dying of starvation. But Halil Bey did not get through without very heavy losses from exhaustion and hunger, and he arrived at Bitlis with a greatly reduced division.
In the meantime the Russians had begun an advance with a view to occupying the basin of Lake Van, and putting an end to further danger of the Turks invading Persia and threatening their flanks in the Caucasus. They advanced in three columns. One, starting from
61
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
Khoy in Persia, approached Van by way of Serai from the East. Another, starting from the Alashgert, crossed the Ala-dag range and approached Van from the North. A third column, from the 4th Russian Army Corps, went by the Eastern Euphrates valley to Melashgert and to the Mush plain. The advance was highly successful. Djevdet Pasha, seeing himself threatened from the North, and knowing that Halil Bey had retired from Persia, evacuated Van ; and so the besieged Armenians were relieved on May 19th. Melashgert was occupied, and advanced Russian patrols reached the plain of Mush. Thus the second Turkish offensive ended unsuccessfully, and the Russians came into possession of the eastern portion of the Van basin.
But the Turkish command was not inactive for long. Again the energetic Halil Bey organized a fresh force at Bitlis of two divisions, and by July 20th was advancing up the valley of the Eastern Euphrates into the Alashgert again. The Russians speedily evacuated Melashgert, and, owing to a misunderstanding, they also retired from Van, though its communications with Persia were secure. When the Turks reached Kara- kilisse on July 30th, the Russian command thought that Van would have to be abandoned ; but before long a Russian counter-manoeuvre from the Passan plain brought Halil Bey's advance to a standstill. A Russian division, formed from the 1st Army Corps in the Passan plain between Sary-Kamish and Erzerum, crossed the Sharian- dag into the valley of the Eastern Euphrates, and so threatened Halil Bey's rear, causing him to retire quickly to the Mush plain. The effect of this Turkish move was very disastrous for the Armenian population of the
62
Early Stages of the Campaign
eastern Van basin. Large numbers of them perished, and their villages were burned wholesale by the retreating forces. By the Autumn of 1915, after the third Turkish attempt, the situation was the same as it had been in the Spring. The Russians had cleared the Turks defi- nitely out of North-west Persia, and were in occupation of the eastern end of the South Armenian plateau. Thus the campaign which had begun badly for the Russian Caucasus Army at Sary-Kamish, had during the Summer of 1915 turned in its favour, and the first successes were obtained on the Russian left in Azairbijan and the Van basin.
<>3
CHAPTER II
THE ERZERUM OFFENSIVE (February 1916)
We have seen in the last chapter that the war on the Asiatic front began unsuccessfully for Russia with the big Turkish advance at Sary-Kamish. Even after the defeat and capture of Ishkhan Pasha, the threat of Turkish invasion of the Caucasus was still imminent. But towards the Spring of 1915 the Caucasus army was strengthened by bringing the 2nd Caucasus Army Corps from the European front, where it had been sent on the first day of mobilization. Also by this time the formation of the 2nd Turkestan Army was completed ; and this brought up the numbers of the Russians to about 70,000. But the Turks with their three Corps of the Armenian Army (9th, 10th, and nth) numbering 80,000, and with 40,000 irregulars in the Van basin and near the Black Sea, were still in superior strength, and in a position to assume the offensive at any moment. This was done, as we have seen, by Halil Bey with his Constantinople division in North-west Persia during May, and later in the Van basin in July. Fear of an invasion of the Caucasus, and of the serious effect which this might produce in Asiatic Russia, was undoubtedly one of the motives which inspired the Anglo-French expedition to
64
The Erzerum Offensive
the Dardanelles in April 1915. This move certainly had the effect of preventing the Turks from sending any further reinforcements to the Armenian front, since now for the first time they were occupied with two fronts instead of with only one. Moreover the defence of the Dardanelles was vital to the safety of the capital, and placed a special strain on their reserves. In those days the Turks had to rely chiefly upon their own efforts, since the German road to the East had not yet been opened by the adhesion of Bulgaria to the Central Powers. It is now clear that the Western Allies had at that time a great opportunity, if they had but known it, to strike Turkey in her weakest spot. But if the Dardanelles campaign is generally regarded as a failure, it must not be forgotten that its indirect effects on the eastern theatres of war were far-reaching. The holding up of large Turkish forces for the defence of Constantinople without doubt saved the situation in the Caucasus, and gave the necessary time to Russia, who is always slow to develop her full military strength. Russia's other occupations in Poland and Galicia had drawn away much of her energy. She could not mobilize her forces at all more quickly than Turkey, who had only the Caucasus front to attend to. Both Empires are equally badly supplied with railways, and both are in a primitive industrial state.
The indirect value of the Dardanelles campaign was perhaps even more clearly felt in Russia during the Summer and Autumn of 1915 than it was in the Spring, for in May the Germans commenced their great Galician drive, and continued during the summer months their victorious advance through Poland. The 2nd Caucasus
65 E
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
Army Corps, which had been brought back to the Caucasus front in March to act as a reinforcement in case of a second Turkish invasion, was after a short stay on the Black Sea coast region hurriedly sent back again to Galicia. Every shell that could be scraped up was sent off to the European front, to stop the oncoming German and Austrian tide. The Turks would there- fore once more have been in a position of great superiority on the Caucasus front, if the Anglo-French expedition to the Dardanelles had not drawn away their attention. Nor was the Caucasus the only place where danger threatened. The situation in Persia became more and more unsatisfactory as the Summer advanced. In July a Germanophile Cabinet was in power at Teheran, and was supported by a large section of the Persian people. Tribal chiefs, Persian magnates, and the Europeanized intellectuals of the chief towns, remembering the Tabriz hangings and the suppression of their revolution by the Cossacks, were only too ready to avail themselves of Russia's difficulties, by joining the Turkish bands and co-operating with German agents. Also, the failure of England and Russia during the first half of 191 5 to relieve in any way the financial difficulties of the Persian Government, or to make any statement to assure the Persians that the Allies were genuinely fighting for the small nationalities, and were ready to apply their principles to Asia as well as to Europe, all this did much to alienate a small nation, whose moral support at a time like this would have been invaluable. During the Autumn the pressure of the Anglo-French expedition on the Dardanelles was felt as far off as Armenia and the Caucasus, and when it was abandoned
66
The Erzerum Offensive
after the entry of Bulgaria, then the British expedi- tion in Mesopotamia, which by November had almost reached the walls of Bagdad, took up the task of re- lieving the Russians in the Caucasus. After this, how- ever, the roles were changed. Russia with her strength mobilized on the Asiatic front for the first time, and with a new and active commander at Tiflis in the Grand Duke Nicolas, was able not only to assume the offensive in Armenia, but by so doing to relieve the British force in Mesopotamia, which had now got into difficulties.
During December 1915 the Caucasus Army was con- siderably reinforced. Up to this time it had been com- posed as follows : the 1st Army Corps based on Sary-Kamish in the upper Araxes valley ; part of the yet unformed 2nd Turkestan Army in the Olti depression ; the 4th Army Corps (only up to half strength) in the Alashgert region ; small detachments on the Black Sea coast, in North-west Persia and the Van vilayet. By Christmas, however, the 2nd Turkestans and the 4th Army Corps had been brought up to strength, the 4th Rifle Division had been added to operate in special regions, wherever needed, the Azairbijan detachment had been strengthened, and a new expeditionary force had been sent under General Baratoff to clear Central Persia of the Turks. Russia had had time to recuperate after the blows delivered against her the previous Summer, and had succeeded in equipping her Caucasian Army, and in- creasing it to 170,000 men. The Turks, on the other hand, were now at a considerable disadvantage. At the end of October there had been a re-grouping of their forces in Armenia. The British threat to Bagdad, and the increasing importance of Persia, caused the Turks
67
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
to strengthen themselves in these regions. From Mush I and Erzerum the 3rd and 5th Composite Divisions were j withdrawn and sent to Bagdad, Three batteries of I artillery were also sent from Erzerum to the South. Evidently at this time the Turks did not feel insecure | in Armenia, and were ready to take risks to save Bagdad, j They must have been ill-informed as to the nature of the j Rus ian reinforcements, for in December they gave leave ! of absence to a number of officers in the Erzerum garrison, j while they made no haste to send back to Erzerum the heavy artillery from the Dardanelles. Instead, they concentrated all their efforts on Mesopotamia, where they succeeded in surrounding General Townsend in Kut, and in threatening the whole British expedition with break-down. Thus it was clear that a Russian offensive on the Caucasus front would not only relieve the situation in Mesopotamia, but would stand a good chance of driving the Turks back on their last line of defence round the fortress of Erzerum, and possibly even of taking it. The Russians were now superior by about 50,000 men along the whole of the Asiatic front from the Black Sea to Persia. This enabled them to under- take flanking movements, which always count for so much in Asiatic warfare. In Asia, with its wide expanses, the chances of an enemy digging himself into positions which cannot be outflanked are very much less than in Europe. Everything, therefore, favoured an offensive in the direction of Erzerum, and a series of manoeuvres and flanking movements in the mountains and valleys at the head-waters of the Araxes and the Euphrates. The eastern approach to Erzerum lies along the Passan plain.1
» For Erzerum region, see Map. 68
The Erzerum Offensive
Its outer chain of forts lies on the Deve-Boyun, a range
i of rolling hills from 7,000 to 8,000 feet high, dividing the
head -waters of the Araxes from those of the western
! Euphrates. Bounding the Passan and upper Euphrates
i plain on the South is the great range of the Palan-tcken,
rising to 10,000 feet, and running east and west like most
I of the ridges of Armenia outside the volcanic zone. To
I the North of the plain lies a confused area, where volcanic
effusions have overlaid the original plateau ranges. To
I the East, not far from the Russo-Turkish frontier, lie
I the masses of the Djelli-Gel and Kodjut-Dag, which to the
West merge into the great uplift of the Kargar-bazar.
Further West still rise the Giaur and Dumlu Dags, between
which and the Kargar-bazar is the only gap in the
whole length of the mountain-wall that shields Erzerum
on the North. This gap is the defile of Gurji-Bogaz,1
and the road through it, at the height of 7,000 feet, is
the only approach to Erzerum from this side. Coming
up from the South and passing through this defile, one
enters the valley of the Tortum river and descends into the
relative depression of Olti Chai and the middle Chorokh.
The problem for the Turks was to hold the approaches
to Erzerum along the Passan plain on the East (this was
effected by the 9th and part of the 10th Army Corps),
and to block the narrow gap in the mountains on the
North-east (this was done by the nth Army Corps, which
had entrenched itself some months previously on the
mountain mass of the Gey Dag, just South-west of Olti).
To the South of Erzerum, across the Palan-teken, lay a
part of the 10th Army Corps, protecting the road leading
into the Van basin and on to Mesopotamia.
1 Turkish for " Georgian Gates."
69
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
The Russian plan, worked out by General Eudenitch, the Grand Duke Nicolas's commander in the field, was to attack the Turkish positions in three columns.1 The 2nd Turkestan Army Corps at Olti in the Chorokh depression was to attack the Turks guarding the Gurji- Bogaz defiles in the positions on the Gey Dag, and by this demonstration to draw off their strength from the Passan plain, where the main blow was to be struck by the ist Army Corps, which was to make a frontal attack on the Azap Keui positions between Hassan Kaleh and the old Russo-Turkish frontier. These positions had been carefully prepared for some months, and had all the signs of permanent field-fortifications. To make them untenable, a third force, the 4th Rifle Division, was to be sent into the mountain country of the Djelli- Gel, to hold the line between the ist Army Corps and the Turkestans, and to threaten the flanks of the Turks at Azap Keui and on the Gey Dag. It is interesting to note that this was the same sort of plan as that which Enver Pasha adopted, when he attacked the Russians just twelve months before. He, however, demonstrated on the Passan plain, and made his main attack on the Olti and Chorokh basins. His plan ultimately failed, because he could not guarantee supplies to his advanced forces in the country that they had occupied. But the Russians were brilliantly successful, because they had given the necessary attention to roads and transport for their main advance along the Passan plain.
On January 13th the Russian advance began. The 2nd Turkestan Army Corps attacked the Turkish nth Army Corps, which was strongly entrenched on the Gey
1 See Map.
70
The Erzerum Offensive
Dag west of Olti.1 The Russian losses were heavy, and they did not succeed in dislodging the Turks ; but the real object of the attack was obtained by causing the Turks to draw off forces for the defence of the north- east (Gurji-Bogaz) gateway to Erzerum, and by masking the main blow, which was delivered on the Passan plain. Information brought by airmen, who flew over Erzerum during these days, showed that Abdulla Kerim Pasha, the Turkish commander, had withdrawn one regiment to the North to protect his left flank in the defiles. This gave the necessary opportunity for the Russian ist Army Corps to carry the main Turkish position, and on January 13th the Azap Keui line was attacked. In spite of the withdrawal of a regiment, the Turks made a very stub- born resistance, and for three days there was severe fighting with great losses on both sides. But on January 15th the 4th Composite Division, which had been given the task of connecting the 2nd Turkestans with the ist Army Corps, crossed the high rugged country of the Djelli Gel at a level of 9,000 feet, and joined up with the Turkestans in the valleys of the upper Olti Chai.1 The Turkish nth Army Corps on the Gey Dag, and the 9th and 10th in the Passan plain, were thus in danger of being outflanked. Moreover, the Russians had so severely pounded the Azap Keui positions, that they were now practically untenable. So on January 16th Abdulla Kerim Pasha ordered a general retreat to the last line of defence on the Erzerum forts. Then followed what is frequently met with in Turkish retreats, and is very characteristic of that race. The Turk has all the stub- bornness and endurance of a highlander and an agricul-
1 See Map. 71
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
turist. He docs not see at once when he is outmastered : but when he does, then the untrained Oriental comes out strong in him ; he throws everything away and bolts in a general sauve qui pent. In this case he just ran till he reached Erzerum. The Russians reached Kupri Keui on the 18th, and the next day were in Hassan Kaleh, thus getting into their hands the whole of the east Passan plain and the basin of the Araxes right up to the outer forts of Erzerum. On January 19th the last Turkish column was seen disappearing behind the rolling banks of the Deve-Boyun. The Cossacks pursued right up to the outer chain of forts under cover of darkness, and cut off 1,000 prisoners. Next day field artillery shelled the outer forts, and so after thirty-nine years Erzerum saw a Russian shell again within its precincts.
Up to this time it was not really part of the Russian plan to attack Erzerum. The original plan was to break the Turkish line on the Passan plain, and to put such pressure on the Turks along the whole line from the Chorokh to Bitlis, that the pressure on the English at Bagdad would be relieved. The extraordinary success of the advance in the second week of January took no one more by surprise than the Russians themselves. The Grand Duke Nicolas wTould not believe the news, when he heard that Hassan Kaleh and Kupri Keui had fallen. Indeed, it was not until January 23rd that General Eudenitch informed him that he thought it possible to take Erzerum, and asked for permission to work out a plan. This was done in the next few days by himself, General Tomiloff, one of his Staff officers, and General Prejvalsky, the commander of the 2nd Turkestans, who for many years had been Russian military attache at
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The Erzerum Offensive
Erzerum and knew the forts and their surroundings. Meanwhile, information which strengthened this decision came to hand in the shape of a wireless telegram, inter- cepted between Abdulla Kerim Pasha and Enver Pasha, in which it was stated that " the condition of the 3rd Army is serious ; reinforcements must be sent at once, or else Erzerum cannot be held." On January 31st a demonstration was made from Hassan Kaleh by the Russians against the outer forts of the Deve-Boyun to test the strength of the Turks. The bombardment con- tinued all day, and by evening it was seen that the Turks had poured water down the slopes in front of the forts, which on freezing covered the mountain sides with icy sheets. According to accounts given me by some officers, as the sun was setting that evening the sign of a cross appeared in the clouds of white smoke that accompanied the bombardment and lay over the forts. During the first week of February heavy artillery was brought up, and the Russian dispositions were made and developed with extraordinary skill. General Paskevitch, when he captured Erzerum in 1828, confined his atten- tions solely to the approach from the Passan plain. Meeting with slight Turkish resistance and with primi- tive forts, he had no great difficulty in breaking through the Deve-Boyun. He had not to trouble about the defiles and the northern approaches to Erzerum, nor had he to force a passage across immense mountainous tracts of snowy wastes in order to keep his line of advance intact. But in these days the methods of modern warfare have to some degree overcome nature. The Gurji-Bogaz defiles were now passable for artillery, and moreover the Turks had built two forts there. On their
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War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
extreme left wing a whole Turkish Army Corps held positions far away in the isolated valleys of the Upper Chorokh Su, where it had before been impossible to keep and feed a battalion. The devices of the engineer and transport services had made all this possible. The Russians therefore were threatened with the danger that, if they should make a frontal attack on the Deve-Boyun forts and carry them, the Turks in the upper Chorokh might suddenly make a great counter-move, break into the Olti depression, reach the Kars plateau, and so get into the rear of the whole Russian army, as they did in Decem- ber 1914. This in fact is exactly what Abdulla Kcrim Pasha tried to do. He ordered Halid Bey (the exceed- ingly brave, if somewhat rash, commander of the frontier regiment which had retreated from before Artvin through Southern Lazistan when the Azap Keui positions were captured) to call up reinforcements from Baiburt, break through the narrow Tortum valley and cut off the 2nd Turkestan Army Corps at Olti. During the first ten days of February severe fighting took place on the passes of the Kabak-tepe east of Igdir,1 and on more than one occasion Halid Bey seemed on the point of outflanking General Prejvalsky. By February 10th, however, the Russian Turkestans had succeeded in repulsing him and were secure in the Tor cum valley, and it was safe for General Eudenitch to begin his advance on Erzerum.
The plan was to form the whole of the Russian forces in this part of Armenia into a great semicircular line stretching from the Upper Chorokh Su across the great volcanic chains of the Dumlu and Giaur Dags and the
1 See Map.
74
The Erzerum Offensive
Kargar-bazar, across the Passan plain, and the heights of the Palan-teken to the valley of Khunus.1 The line was some 130 miles long, and it had to be covered by two Army Corps and some detached forces. All the different sections of the line had to keep in touch with each other, and to advance over snow-bound plateau or icy mountain skree, whichever fell to their lot, thus gradually converging upon the great fortress, and threat- ening to surround it. The object of General Eudenitch, in this most ably conceived and brilliantly executed plan, was to force Abdulla Kerim Pasha either to evacuate Erzerum, or else to be locked up in it with no hope of relief. It is safe to say that the struggle was much greater in this operation with the natural enemies, cold and hunger, than it was with the Turks. The Russian troops had to cross mountain ranges with deep snow- drifts at 10,000 feet, and to go for at least three days cut off from supplies of food, with nothing but the few crusts of bread they could carry with them. No other race of human beings, except those accustomed to the cold of sub-arctic climates like that of Russia, could have performed this feat. The Anatolian Turk is in no degree inferior to the Russian in physical endurance, but he lacks the habit of husbanding his resources. The Russian, whenever he gets the smallest chance, sets him- self down in some little hollow, and somehow or other makes himself a cup of tea by burning bits of grass or moss. But the Turkish soldier literally goes without anything for two or three days, and then eats a whole sheep or a perfect mountain of " pilaff," so that he cannot move for hours. Moreover, the Turkish army has in
1 See Map.
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War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
it Arabs and Syrians, who can ill endure a winter cam- paign in Armenia.
The Russian dispositions by February ioth were as follows * : The 38th Division of the 1st Army Corps on the Passan plain was to demonstrate on the left wing before forts Kaburgar and Uzun Ahmet, while the 39th Division was to deliver the main attack on the right against forts Dolan-gyoz and Chaban-dede. The 4th Division of the 2nd Turkestan Army Corps was to hold Halid Bey before Igdir in the Upper Chorokh Su, and the 5th Division was to advance southward from the valley of the Tortum Chai. One of its columns was to cross the Dumlu Dag and break into the Euphrates plain in the rear of Erzerum, and the other column on the left was to pass through the defiles of the Gurji-Bogaz and join up with the 4th Composite Division,2 thus surround- ing forts Kara-gyubek and Tufta, which guarded Erzerum from the North-east. The task of the 4th Composite Division was one of extreme difficulty, for it had to cross the snow-bound ridge of the Kargar-bazar at the height of 10,000 feet, in order to hold the line between the 1st Army Corps and the Turkestans, and so forge the link in the chain that was to close in on fort Chaban-dede from the North and fort Tufta from the South. The artillery of the 4th Composite Division had to be hauled up the mountain-side to positions whence the Turkish lines connecting forts Tufta and Chaban-dede could be shelled. The snow lay six feet deep in drifts, and the rocks were covered with icy sheets. At first the attempt
1 See Map.
3 This was made up partly from Tiflis drafts and partly from 4th Army Corps reserves.
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The Erzerum Offensive
was made to haul the artillery up by hand ; but this proved impossible. Then each gun was taken to pieces, and the wheels, the fittings, and the body of the gun were carried on their shoulders by parties of men. This almost superhuman task was accomplished in twelve days.
The Turkish dispositions were as follows x : The 9th Army Corps with the Erzerum garrison held the Deve- Boyun forts, while the nth Army Corps, greatly dimin- ished by the retreat from Azap Keui, was kept in the rear as a reserve. The 10th Army Corps was in the northern sector, holding forts Kara-gyubek and Tufta, and the Gurji-Bogaz defiles.
On February nth the order for the general Russian advance was given. The Elizabetopol and Baku regi- ments attacked forts Chaban-dede and Dolan-gyoz respectively. The latter fort is situated on a little knoll which juts out into the Passan plain, and is, as it were, the advanced guard of the outer chain. By 5 a.m. on the 12th Dolan-gyoz was surrounded, but the battalion of Turks holding the fort managed to retreat to the Uzun Ahmet fort, a powerful redoubt which rests upon a trapeze- like rocky mass with cliffs on three sides. At the same time the 2nd Turkestans, advancing through the defiles of the Gurji-Bogaz, surrounded the advanced fort of Kara-gyubek. Two outposts were already in the hands of the Russians ; but the main struggle was yet to come.
On the Kargar-bazar heights to the North all through the day and night of the 10th and nth of February the 4th Composite Division attacked the Turks across snow-fields and skrees of rock. The summit of the range
1 See Map.
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was in the hands of the Russians, but the Turks held stubbornly on to the snow-fields to the West of the summit which connected forts Chaban-dede and Tufta. Here they had made snow-trenches, which were invisible to the naked eye at a distance of more than a hundred yards. On the night of the 12th the right wing of the 39th Division was ordered to attack fort Chaban-dede, which, with Tufta, was the key to Erzerum. The Baku regiment, which had taken Dolan-gyoz, now joined the Elizabeto- pols, and together they advanced from the village of Buyuk Tuy on the Passan plain up the rocky valley of the Tuy towards the towering cliffs, on which fort Chaban-dede rested.1 The Russian soldiers were clad in white coats, so that in the darkness and against the snow they were invisible. Silently creeping up the rocky slopes to the fort, they got to within 250 yards of it before the Turkish searchlights discovered them. At once from the Uzun Ahmet and Chaban-dede forts a murderous cross-fire was poured upon them, which in two hours caused them to lose one third of their number. However, one battalion of the Elizabetopols pushed right up, till they got under- neath the cliffs of fort Chaban-dede. Here the guns from the fort could not fire at them, the angle being too high : but the guns from Uzun Ahmet could still rake their lines. At this moment also the 108th regiment of the nth Turkish Army Corps on the Olugli heights at the head of the Tuy defile began a flanking movement. The right wing of the Elizabetopol regi- ment was exposed, and as there was no sign of the 4th Division, whose appearance alone could fill the gap, the position was critical. The 4th Division was in fact
1 See Map.
78
The Erzerum Offensive
at this moment struggling under almost more terrible conditions at the height of 10,000 feet on the Kargar- bazar. The men were engaged not with the Turks, but with the frost and snow. During the nights of the 12th and 13th they lost 2,000 of their number from frost-bite alone. In addition to their sufferings from cold, they had the Herculean task of carrying their artillery across the snow and rocks, which alone was enough to account for their delay. Accordingly, there was nothing for the Elizabetopol and Bakintsi regiments to do but to retreat to the bottom of the Tuy valley, where respite could be obtained, and this they did on the morning of the 13th. All that day they waited in vain for the 4th Division ; but when evening came and no one appeared, it was seen to be useless to wait any longer, for time only aided the Turks, whose re- inforcements were being hurried up from Erzerum. So it was decided that the Derbent regiment, which had hitherto been held in reserve, should come up on the right wing and try to turn the flank of the 108th Turkish regiment, which was now occupying the heights of the Sergy-kaya, a desolate knoll on the rocky mass of Olugli.1 At 7 p.m. the advance began. The Derbent regiment left its position in the rear, and crossing in the darkness the head of the Tuy valley, ascended a defile and reached the snow-fields round the Olugli mass. Immense diffi- culty was experienced in the advance. The snow lay in drifts often five to six feet deep, and in places the soldiers in order to move had to take off their coats and
x These names are given to the south-westerly projecting parts of the Kargar-bazar range, and are only marked on the large scale Turkish military map.
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War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
walk on them in the snow, throwing them forward every three feet to avoid sinking in up to their necks. In this way they advanced painfully all night. The Turks, suspecting nothing, were lying in their snow trenches, their attention chiefly concentrated on how to prevent themselves from freezing to death. At last daylight began to break upon this arctic scene, and through scuds of snow broken by the icy wind, the Turks saw a chain of dark forms slowing closing in on them. They could hardly believe their eyes, for it seemed to them impossible that a human army with rifles and ammunition could cross the country that lay in front of them. By 5.30 a.m. the Turks saw that their trenches on the Sergy-Kaya were being surrounded from the North-east and East, and only a narrow neck of snow-field to the South con- nected them with the fort of Chaban-dede. So they hastily left their trenches and retreated as fast as the drifts would allow them across the Olugli snow-field till they reached the fort. Chaban-dede was now surrounded on the North-east, but the retreat of the Turkish garrison was not cut off on the South and West, and the Turks with characteristic stubbornness and bravery continued their deadly cross-fire from forts Uzun Ahmet and Chaban- dede, as if nothing had happened. Thus the Derbent regiment had by this manoeuvre gained important ground ; but the Russians had not yet broken the Turkish cordon that united the forts, nor did the three regiments of the 39th Division dare to advance farther for fear of becoming separated from the Russians to the right and left of them, and so giving the Turks a chance to break through in a counter-attack.
But what had happened meanwhile to the 4th Com-
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The Erzerum Offensive
posite Division and the 2nd Turkestans ? They alone could save the situation by piercing the plateau between forts Chaban-dede and Tufta, and so joining up with the Derbent regiment on the heights of Olugli.1 The critical question was whether they had been equal to their stu- pendous task of penetrating the 50 miles of rugged snow- bound ridges and plateau. The morning of February the 14th showed that they had accomplished this task, and so sealed the fate of Erzerum.
During the previous day the 4th Composite Division had been finishing the transport of their artillery to the summit of the Kargar-bazar ridge. The guns had again been dismembered, and carried to positions whence they could drop shells on the Turks defending the right flank of fort Tufta. The Turkestans had also prepared their artillery to sweep the fort from the North. On the morning of February the 14th the infantry of the 4th Division descended the north-western slopes of the Kargar-bazar, sliding down the snow on their coats to the open plateau, out of which the Tuy river rises. From here they moved on to the north-west and reached the foot of the Grobovoye heights, which form the eastern side of the Gurji-Bogaz defile.1 This is the north-eastern "gateway " to Erzerum through which the 2nd Turkestans were to advance, and which the Turkish 10th Army Corps was defending from forts Kara-gyubek and Tufta. The plan was that the Turkish positions on the Grobovoye heights, connecting forts Kara-gyubek and Tufta, should be attacked simultaneously by the Turkestans coming through the northern defiles, and by the 4th Division coming down from the Kargar-bazar on the South. The
* See Map.
8l F
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
critical moment for the Russians had arrived. Would these forces unite and press their attack together, or had one of them failed and been overwhelmed in the snow-fields or defiles ? About midday the artillery of the 4th Division began to drop shells on the Turkish snow-trenches on the Grobovoye heights. The bombard- ment went on for half an hour and then stopped, the commanders waiting in suspense to hear whether there was any reply from their comrades, the Turkestans, who should by this time be attacking from the North. Hope was beginning to wane, and they were faced by the prospect either of a single-handed encounter with a greatly superior enemy or of a disastrous retreat. But about one o'clock a faint rumble was heard, and a few minutes later shells were seen dropping on the Grobovoye heights. They were Russian shells, yet not fired by the 4th Division. The situation was saved, for the Turkes- tans had forced their way through the Gurji-Bogaz defile, capturing fort Kara-gyubek, and pressing on to the Grobovoye heights and towards fort Tufta. The Turks now on the Grobovoye heights were in danger of being surrounded from the North, South and East. They could see that Kara-gyubek was already in Russian hands. The left wing of the 4th Division, moreover, was pressing on to the heights of Kuni-tepe, a mass lying North of the Olugli and commanding fort Tufta from the South. This they occupied at three o'clock, and the Turks on the Grobovoye heights retired at once on fort Tufta. In another half-hour the Turkestans appeared upon the sky-line ; and here, on this desolate Grobovoye height, at this historic moment, they greeted their brothers of the 4th Division, The gap in the Russian
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The Erzerum Offensive
line was now filled ; the mountains and the snow-fields had been overcome, and it was now only a question of a few hours before the Turks would be overcome too.
Just as this memorable meeting was taking place, the Russian artillery observation posts at Ketchk noticed a great stir in the Turkish lines surrounding fort Tufta. The Staff of the ioth Army Corps knew that the game was up, and, to escape being surrounded, at once began the evacuation of fort Tufta. That night also Abdulla Kerim Pasha ordered the evacuation of all the forts of the Deve-Boyun. The reserves of the nth Army Corps were the first to leave, followed by those of the 9th. Then explosions in forts Kaburgar, Ortayuk, Uzun Ahmet and Sivishli were observed from the Russian lines. The evacuation of fort Chaban-dede was begun at 2 p.m., and by four o'clock the Russians were in possession of all the forts of the Deve-Boyun, while the 4th Composite Division and the Turkestans were pouring into the Erzerum plain, in the hope of cutting off the Turkish retreat. But here they met with less success. The 4th Division, with orders to advance South, were ten miles ahead ot the Turkestans, who had orders to advance West. The confusion caused by columns crossing on the march gave a good start to the Turks, who had speedily evacuated the forts, as soon as danger was imminent. Yet one of their Divisions, the 34th, was captured at Ilidja, and a large part of their artillery was lost. But the 9th and ioth Army Corps lost little in men or ammunition, and thus the 3rd Turkish Army was able to retire on Erzinjan to await reinforcements and continue the struggle. It is curious that the Russians
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lost much less in the operations before Erzerum than they did in the fighting before the Azap Keui posi- tions in the previous month, when they lost not less than 30,000 killed and wounded in four days' fighting. But in the five days' fighting along the whole length of the Erzerum forts from the Deve-Boyun to the Gurji-Bogaz defiles their losses were not more than 12,000, a large part of which were deaths or injuries due to frostbite and exposure.
The capture of the great fortress, hitherto considered impregnable, sent a thrill through the whole continent. Every bazaar from Shiraz to Samarkand, from Konia to Kuldja, began talking of the great Urus, who had taken Erzerum from the Osmanli. Russian military prestige in the East had fallen very low since the Sary- Kamish battle and Enver Pasha's advance into the Caucasus in December 1914. But the Dardanelles expedition had given the Turks something else to think of than con- quering the Caucasus, and had thus afforded the Russians the necessary respite to prepare for their attack on Erzerum, which in its turn saved the British from being driven completely out of Mesopotamia.
The capture of Erzerum was the first great success that came to the Allies in Asia. It might be regarded as the turning-point of the war in the East. Till then it was not clear who were going to be masters of the great road from Central Europe to Central Asia. Germany had done well in Europe at the end of 1915 ; she had held the lines in France, occupied Poland, broken through Servia, and joined up with Bulgaria and Turkey. In fact the Central Powers had established themselves as masters of Central Europe, and were dominating the
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The Erzerum Offensive
road into the Middle East. But could they drive their wedge further, and realize their great plan, Berlin to Bagdad, and so prepare the way for the downfall of the Russian and British Empires in Asia ? The answer came on February 16th, 1916 : the thunder of the Russian guns before Erzerum told the Central Powers that what- ever they were or might be in Europe, they could never be masters in Asia ; for their centre of gravity was too far to the West to allow them to be lords of two con- tinents. But England and Russia, both by nature and position Asiatic Powers, began to organize their Eastern dominions during the early months of 1916. From that time forth their success in these areas of the war has developed and increased.
The political importance also to Russia of the capture of Erzerum was immense. It established her finally on the Armenian plateau, and completed a process whicfy had begun in the Trans-Caucasus more than a century before. Once in possession of the great routes that converge at Erzerum from Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Persia and the Caucasus, the conquest of the rest of the Armenian plateau, Mush, Bitlis and Erzinjan, followed as a matter of course. Regarded as tactics the Erzerum operations were perhaps not of great importance. The Turkish counter-attack at Ognut in August 1916 was certainly more important from this point of view, because there for the first time European methods of warfare, close columns of infantry and concentrated artillery fire, were used in Asia. But, in its moral and political effect, there is nothing in the whole course of the war in the East more important than the capture of Erzerum and the establishment of the Russians on the Armenian plateau.
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War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
It means also that the Armenian and Khurdish races will in future years be guided and influenced largely by their great Northern neighbour, and that the road to the East across Persia and Armenia will not fall to the exclusive political influence of the Central Powers of Europe.
86
PART II DIARY OF AUTHOR'S JOURNEYS
CHAPTER III
WITH THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITION IN NORTH- WEST PERSIA AND KHURDISTAN
After the evacuation of Galicia by the Russian armies in June 1915, I decided to leave the European and come to the Asiatic fronts. I travelled by Vladikavkas and the Georgian military road, and reached Tiflis in the first week of July. I presented my letters of introduc- tion from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Viceroy's diplomatic attache, and after spending a few days in making myself acquainted with the Caucasus capital, decided to leave for North-west Persia in order to study the conditions on the extreme Russian left. On my way by train to the Persian frontier I stopped at Alexandropol, and drove to the ruins of the ancient Armenian city of Ani, where I found Professor Marr, the famous archaeologist of Petrograd University, engaged in his summer research work. The Professor invited me to stay with him in his little house among the ruins, and I spent two days watching him at work. One evening Colonel Schmerling, the Vice-Governor of Kars, arrived on horseback with a retinue of servants to visit the ruins. I was presented to him, and he kindly pro- cured me a horse so that I could ride across country to
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War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
Echmiadzin. I passed Talish and Talin on the way, following roughly the line taken by Mr. Lynch, as described in the first volume of his " Armenia." From Talish I made a side excursion for two days to the high country that surrounds Mount Alagyoz. I reached an encampment of Yezidis late in the evening, and next day set out with a native to ascend the snow slopes of the extinct volcano. I reached one of the three peaks at midday, but the mist came up and obscured the view. On the way down, however, it lifted, and I obtained a magnificent view of the volcanic plateau of Kars, the low- lands of the Araxes, and Mount Ararat, capped with eternal snow and sheathed in mystery. In the far distance to the south lay the South Armenian plateau and the basin of Lake Van, amid which the snowy cone of Mount Zipandar was just discernible. Amid this scenery of solemn grandeur I could not help reflecting how, while Nature was at peace, contemplating and regenerating, mankind was now engaged in murdering and destroy- ing. But perhaps, after all, the war had no greater sig- nificance than the thunderstorm which just then was passing over the valley of the Araxes below me. It thundered and looked terrible for a while ; then slowly dispersed. The sun came out, and the world went on as before.
I found that there are three villages and summer encampments of Yezidis on the slopes of Mount Alagyos. While staying with them I tried to find out about their beliefs, for I knew that they were supposed to reverence the Devil, whom they regard as a fallen angel. All I could discover was that they dress and speak like Khurds, but are less friendly to them than to the Christians.
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With the Russian Expedition
Their belief is probably a slightly corrupted form of the ancient Persian cult, which conceived of the universe as controlled by the two gods of good and evil, continually warring with each other.
On July 25th I reached Pxhmiadzin, where the Catholicos of the Armenians kindly gave me a room in the hostel. Next morning I had an interview with his Holiness, who was much perturbed about the news which had come through from Turkey, where the deportations were just then beginning. I made the acquaintance of Archdeacon Haloust, one of the most intellectual of the Armenians at Echmiadzin. He showed me the ancient Armenian book, " The Key of Truth," which is sup- posed to prove that the Armenians before the 3rd century came under the influence of the earliest forms of Christ- ianity. But it must be borne in mind that the conversion of the Armenians is generally attributed to Gregory the Illuminator in the 4th century. On July 27th I left by train for the Persian frontier at Djulfa, where I was passed over the river by the frontier guards into Persian territory. The heat of Djulfa is very great at this time of year, and I accepted with much pleasure the kind invitation of M. le Jeune, the Belgian chief of the Persian customs, to rest and sup with him in his cool house. At midnight I set out in a phaeton, which M. le Jeune had hired for me from a Persian, and in the early hours of the morning I was on the road for Tabriz. The Russians were constructing the Djulfa-Tabriz railway, and gangs of Persians were hard at work making deep cuttings in the hills that run east and west across the Tabriz table-land. After Marand I passed Sofian, where the Russians defeated a
9i
War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
small force of Turks and Khurds, who had occupied Tabriz during January 191 5. On the afternoon of July 29th I reached Tabriz, and went straight to the British Con- sulate, where I found the Consul, Mr. Shipley, who kindly asked me to stay with him, and gave me a room in his spacious Consulate.
My object in coming to Tabriz was to learn how the educated Persians of this important border province felt about the war, and what their attitude was towards the contending Powers in Europe. With Amir All Khan, the dragoman at the Consulate, I went to visit some of the prominent merchants and teachers in Mahommedan schools. I found a feeling of scepticism on all political matters, the result of disillusionment after the failure of the Constitutional movement. But they all agreed that, but for outside interference, the movement would have been a success. I was interested to find a marked cleavage in the ranks of the once united Constitutionalists. Like so many such movements, it had at first gained the support of many conflicting interests, which after a time were bound to show signs of divergence and discord. The Persian Constitutional movement began as a revolt of the Mahommedan clergy and the intellectual classes against the corrupt government at Teheian. The clergy wished to retain their religious privileges and ecclesiasti- cal emoluments, which the Shah was threatening ; and the intellectual classes, under the influence of Western education and the Russian revolution of 1905, had deter- mined to put an end to Oriental despotism. When the Constitution was promulgated, the Mahommedan clergy at once attempted to get a clause inserted, which would give to a commission of five Mujtahids (ecclesiastical dignitaries
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With the Russian Expedition
among the Shiahs x) the right to reject all laws not in accor- dance with the Sheriat (the religious canon of Islam). Hitherto the civil and religious law had been kept apart in Persia. The more free-thinking section of the Consti- tutionalists were not of course in sympathy with this clause, and only agreed to its insertion in order to avoid an open breach with the Mollahs. Thus, as with most revolutions, the forces that brought it about did so for different and conflicting reasons ; and this became clear as soon as the common enemy had been removed. The Mollahs were of course joined by the powerful land-owning khans, and by many of the chieftains of the non-Persian tribes on the northern and western fringe of Persia, especially the Khurds and Lurs. In the subsequent disorders Russian influence supported the latter, with the result that the whole movement came to grief. Shortly before my arrival in Tabriz there had died a well-known character, whose career gives a typical picture of what went on in Persia after the Revolution. Sujar-ed-Dowleh had started life as a caravan-thief on the road between Tabriz and Maragha. Having acquired enough in the first few months to bribe off all the gendarmes and police that were sent to bring him to justice, he then developed a desire to become a Governor-General. The disorders during the siege of Tabriz and its occupation by the Russians had left it without a Governor. The appoint- ment of Sujar-ed-Dowleh was convenient to the reactionary Russian Government, and in due course he was installed, although another Governor had already been appointed
1 That is, followers of Ali, first cousin of Mahomet, and the hus- band of his daughter Fatimah. The Shiahs regard themselves as the orthodox Muslims.
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by the Persian Government. The combined caravan- thief, arch-briber, and Governor-General then proceeded to rule the greatest province of Persia for upwards of four years. This is only an example of what has gone on in Persia since the dawn of history. In the centuries before Christ the nomad Parthians descended from the Scythian steppes and became rulers of Persian cities. The Sassanians, also nomads, and probably freebooters, came and overthrew the Parthians. The present Qajar dynasty in Persia was founded by Turcoman shepherds from the Trans-Caspian. In more recent times caravan- thieves like Sujar-ed-Dowleh descend and rule the cities of Azairbijan. To-morrow Russian engineers and revo- lutionary committees may prove to be the element which will lead to the regeneration of Persia.
But the most effectual and lasting agent of progress was to be seen at Tabriz in the schools. Since the Con- stitutional movement began, fourteen schools have been opened there, entirely by the efforts of the intellectuals and merchants, by whom they are supported voluntarily. I visited several, and found that in spite of the war and the Russo-Turkish invasion of the province, they were showing remarkable results. There were 5,089 boys and 400 girls at these schools. Persian and Arabic were taught by Hoddjas, and History, Geography, Arithmetic and Algebra from Persian text-books. I questioned the pupils, and found that some of them had learnt a little French. The chief difficulty seemed to be the absence of a training-place for teachers. These were mostly Armenians, who, as may so frequently be observed in the East, are the first to become influenced by the new culture penetrating from the West. The Persian popu-
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lation of Tabriz is about 100,000, and the number of Persian children attending schools is 5,489. Small as this figure may seem, it is an immense improvement on what there was before the Revolution, when there was nothing in Tabriz but old schools kept in the mosques by Mollahs, where the boys learned to mutter the Koran. Such has been the effect of two years of the Constitutional movement, inspired by Western civilization, upon the population of Tabriz. I could not. help feeling, however, what a pity it was that Europe had not confined the culture it transmitted to spiritual things, and had not left behind its guns and militarism for home consumption. As it was, the wretched inhabitants of Azairbijan were compelled to watch two of the latest converts to the culture of Europe, Russia and Turkey, brawling over their beautiful plains and turning their rice-fields and oases into deserts.
On August 20th I left Tabriz and the hospitality of Mr. Shipley. I had for some days previously been making up a caravan, and had purchased two horses, a riding- saddle and a pack-saddle, string, rope, food, leather, and all other appurtenances of travel in Asia. I also took with me Solomon Melikiants, the son of an Armenian merchant, to look after the horses.
I set out across the Tabriz plain towards the northern shores of Lake Urumiah, passing the fertile oases of Gunai, where the peaceful Persian peasants cultivate rice and the vine under the cool shade of sombre poplars. The summer heat was great, and I could only travel from 6 to 10 a.m., and from 4 to 8 p.m. : but the wonderful dryness of the air tempered the fierce rays of the sun. Several times I bathed in Lake Urumiah,
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which is more salty than the Dead Sea and in whose waters it is impossible to sink. The beaches of the lake are covered with barren shingle. Not a sign of life is seen in its waters, except for a tiny crustacean, like a minute sea-horse. But some of the lagoons were alive with wild duck and geese. Awa}' across the lake to the South lay the great wall of the Assyrian highlands, glow- ing with red and gold in the August sun. The waters of the lake were deep blue, heaving in limpid waves. I thought of the lines of the famous Persian Sufi, Jalalu 'ddln Rumi, which Mr. Nicholson has translated :
The vessel of my being was completely hidden in the sea.
The sea broke into waves, and again Wisdom rose
And cast abroad a voice ; so it happened and thus it befell.
Foamed the sea, and at every foam-fleck
Something took figure and something was bodied forth.
Every foam-fleck of body, which received a sign from that sea,
Melted straightway and turned to spirit in this ocean.
It was while I was waiting, I had almost said dreaming, by the shores of the lake, that I met Dr. Shedd, the well- known American missionary, who was passing on the road from Urumiah. We sat for an hour in the shade of an olive-tree, while he related to me the terrible experi- ences that he and his brother missionaries had under- gone during the siege of Urumiah the previous winter. His sufferings had been great ; and to crown all his wife had died. He and his girls were on their way back to America for a rest.
On the evening of August 22nd I reached the plain of Salmas, which runs out in a long oblong form from the north-west corner of Lake Urumiah. I made my way at once to the city of Dilman, which is surrounded by
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an old mud wall, now crumbling to decay. I rode into the bazaar and enquired for the Persian Governor. I was told he had gone to Tabriz. I then asked for the Assistant Governor, but he, they said, had gone off on a hunting journey into the mountains. Then I asked if there were any officials, police, gendarmes, or perhaps a new caravan-thief who might be aspiring to any of these posts. No. There were none of these as yet, though they were to be expected. " Who is in authority, then?" I asked. "There is no one", they said. " Every one is the authority." And it was true. The city had no government, and to all appearance required none. The merchants were going about their business in the bazaar as usual ; the peasants were coming in to sell their produce ; the Governor's house was empty, and there were no officials or police. Here indeed was a people, who had got as near as seems practicable to a state of passive anarchy. Again I saw Persian history written in these people. A town has no governor, and wants none, for he is an expense. A Khurdish shepherd from the mountains sees a town without a governor, so he appoints himself, becomes Viceroy, and finally Shah.
I spent the night in a caravanserai with a large company of Persian merchants, and an even larger company of vermin, and next morning went out to the Armenian village of Havtvan, where lived the Armenian bishop, Nerses. He kindly gave me a room to stay in while I was in Salmas. Next day I rode off to visit the Russian general in command of the Russian forces in North-west Persia. He was living in a little village at the edge of the plain. I arrived at the small Persian village after
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a hot, dusty journey across the desert. An endless maze of mud walls surrounded the houses. Before several doors dust-covered sentries lounged, while down the narrow streets Cossacks on shaggy ponies dashed on errands. By the wall surrounding a leafy orchard, on the outskirts of the village, I halted and handed in my papers to the sentry. In a few minutes I was enjojdng the shade of the apricot-trees, while a sparkling stream watered the dusty grass at my feet. In the orchard stood a round felt tent, like a great bee-hive, which I recognized at once as the abode of a Central Asian nomad, a Tartar or Turkoman from Trans-Caspia. But instead of a Mongol face in a long cloak and shaggy cap, I beheld the face and uniform of General Chernozubof, sitting at the edge of his tent, glancing over the telegrams and orders for the day. I was at once cordially welcome in this ingenious army head-quarters, so much in keeping with its Asiatic surroundings. We were soon joined by the Cossack commander, and the generals related to me with the aid of a map the recent operations of their troops against the Khurds and Turks. A cup of Russian tea was served, as we squatted on the ground ; and before I took my leave I was furnished with passes to enable me to travel in the region occupied by the Russian army in North-western Persia.
On August 25th I left the Salmas plain for Urumiah, passing dov/n the western shore of the lake. In the hills to the east of the plain, a little off the road, I went to see a bas-relief carved in the rock. A king is receiving two persons, who are apparently requesting something from him. In view of the fact that north of this point in the plain of Salmas and Khoy there are old Armenian churches,
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and an Armenian population to this day, while to the south there are none, it is probable that this bas-relief represents a Persian, probably a Sassanian king, receiving tribute from some Armenian princes of this district, which perhaps he had lately conquered.
As I proceeded southward towards the Urumiah plain, I became more and more aware of the disturbances caused by the war. All along the road I met bands of refugees coming northward, bringing terrible tidings of oncoming Turks and retreating Russians. The wayside inns were full of emaciated people, some among them dying or dead. Most were in rags, with nothing to subsist on but a few melons picked up on the roadside. They were all Assyrian Christians from the Urumiah plains, with a sprinkling of their kinsmen from the mountains at the head-waters of the Tigris. Knowing how to discount the Eastern imagination in war-time, I decided to push on to Urumiah to see if there really was a serious danger of a Turkish invasion. It was true that the Russians, hearing of Halil Bey's second advance into the Alashgert in Armenia, had ordered the withdrawal of their infantry from Urumiah. Such was the fright of the Assyrian Christians, after their experience of the Turkish invasion the previous winter, that they fled in panic. When I arrived at the gates of Urumiah on August 26th I found no Russians, nor even Cossacks ; but neither had any Turks arrived, as the refugees had asserted. But this time 1 found a Persian Governor, and best of all, Dr. Packard, of the American Presbyterian Mission, living in the mission-compound surrounded by a beautiful grove of lime-trees about a mile from the city. He and his wife welcomed me with open arms, for they were quite
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alone, the last missionary, Dr. Shedd, having left. They were clinging on devotedly to their noble work of saving life, and relieving sufferings, in this unhappy land that lay between the two armies which advanced and re- treated over it in turn. Dr. Packard is six feet tall, with the eye of an eagle and the courage of a lion. He has travelled during the last thirteen years in every remote valley of this wild Turco-Persian borderland ; he is intimately acquainted with every tribal chief of the Khurds, and can go among the fiercest and most intract- able of them, such is his moral hold over these men, his medical skill, and the confidence which they place in a man who is not engaged in political intrigue.
All through the winter of 1914-15 there had been terrible disorders in Urumiah. First a small Turkish force came in and drove the Russians out in December. Instantly all the Khurdish tribes of the mountain swooped into the plain of Urumiah like vultures on a carcase, and began to plunder the Assyrian Christians and even the Moslems themselves. The Turkish civil officials, Neri Bey and Raoub Bey, took part in the pillage, and it was not till the army of Halil Bey arrived that anything like public security existed. This part of Persia was in fact wit- nessing one of those incursions of nomad tribes from the mountains into the peaceful oases of the plains, which have been going on all through her history. The same thing occurred in 1880, when Sheikh Obeidulla, the great Khurdish chief of Neri, invaded Azairbijan right up to the walls of Tabriz. On the present occasion the Khurds of the Turco-Persian borderland, profiting by the political disturbances created by the Great War, invaded the plains of Urumiah, partly with a view to loot, but also,
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as far as the tribal chiefs were concerned, with the idea of creating a large Khurdish kingdom, with themselves as the rulers. It was undoubtedly a quite spontaneous movement, called forth by the steady growth of national- ism among the Khurds during the last thirty years ; but it is curious that it coincided with the plan of Enver Pasha and the Young Turks, set forth at the Erzerum Conference of September 1914, to create a chain of buffer States under Ottoman suzerainty between Russia and Turkey. Religious fanaticism probably played a much smaller part in the movement than in previous years. The governing factor throughout seems to have been nationality. It was in fact the desire on the part of the Khurds to realize themselves as a unit in human affairs ; and that idea was far more powerful than the idea of Jihad (Holy War). The Khurds of the Turco-Persian borderland had for many years past seen Russian influence creeping slowly down from the north. They had also watched the rise of the Ottoman imperialism of the Young Turks, so that their attitude towards both Ottoman and Russian imperialism was one of hostility. Frequent con- flicts between Khurds and Turks took place in the Bitlis region before the war, and even after its outbreak many of the Khurds merely observed a sullen neutrality towards both sides. But the Khurds of the Persian borders, being farther away from Ottoman influences, feared Russian imperialism more, and hence their readiness to join the Turks, from whose imperialism they had less to apprehend. Dr. Packard showed me a letter which Karini Agha, the head of the Mamush Khurds of Sulduz, wrote to the Russian Consul at Urumiah just before he entered the city. The letter showed that his chief
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concern was to establish himself and his house as the ruling dynasty of this part of Azairbijan. " I am Karini Agha ", the note began. " I am not Khurdu Bey, nor Bedr Khan Bey, nor even Sheikh Mahommed. These are my servants ; and when I speak the mountains tremble. Your Cossacks shall be my hewers of wood, and their wives shall be my delight. As for you, you shall accept the faith of Islam or perish as a giaour."
The scenes that followed the Russian evacuation were indescribable. Thirty thousand Khurds poured down into the plain, and for two days the whole place was given over to plunder. Karini Agha and Rashid Bey set themselves up as dictators with a puppet of a Persian Governor. During the next week 800 Assyrian Christians were massacred, and 5,000 families robbed of all they possessed. About this time Dr. Packard did a courageous piece of work. At the risk of his life he went to Geok-tepe, a village in the plain, whither some 2,000 Christians had retired to make their last desperate stand in the church buildings against a host of Khurds. The doctor went straight to the Khurdish chief commanding the besiegers, and begged him in the name of humanity to spare the Christians, telling him that Mahommed had never counte- nanced cruelty, and had always taught his disciples to be kind and merciful. The effect of a personal appeal for mercy from one who inspires confidence even in a wild mountaineer was instantaneous. The Christians were liberated on condition of giving up their arms.
The reign of terror in Urumiah lasted for three months ; then after the retreat of Halil Bey's army from Dilman, the Russians occupied the city and plain. The Persian Khurds retired with them, and Karini Agha soon became a Pasha
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with high Ottoman military rank. Whether he still imagines that he will some day establish an independent Khurdistan may perhaps be doubted. But at any rate he looks to Ottoman protection for his national ideals, whatever form they may take.
The territory inhabited by the Khurds may be said to cover almost exactly the region of the Taurus chain, beginning from Cilicia, and passing the region between Kharput and Diarbekr, through Bohtan and the head- waters of the Tigris to the Turco-Persian borderland. Here the Taurus bends south-east, and Khurdish tribes are found over its whole length, and in the plains bordering it as far south as Kasr-i-Shirim. Their chief mode of life is cattle and horse-raising, for which abundant mountain pasturage is necessary : so a very large part of them live as nomads, taking their flocks up to the alpine meadows for the Summer, and retiring in Winter to sheltered valleys in the foothills. Being a strong and very virile race, their numbers are continually increasing, the pressure of population and the insuffi- ciency of pasturage thus making it necessary for them to expand. The deserts of Mesopotamia do not attract them, owing to the absence under Turkish rule of any development of irrigation in the basins of the lower Tigris and Euphrates. On the other hand, to the north in Armenia they find upland plateaux, where indus- trious Armenian peasants grow corn, while on the Persian table-land fertile oases abound, where rice and the vine flourish. Everything attracts them northward, and this is one of the prime causes of political disorders in Greater Armenia and North-west Persia, and can only be dealt with by development of .the irrigated lands of Mesopo-
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tamia, so as to give the Khurds a chance to migrate south. The Khurds are quite capable of acclimatizing themselves, and of taking to agriculture, as is shown by the colonies of Sunni Moslems on the plains of Urumiah. These people are really Khurds, who have come north from the Taurus range, and settled in the plain among the Persians, learning from them to cultivate the land, and forgetting their former nomad existence. There are also Khurds in the transitional stage between nomad and settled life. Thus the Harkai tribe winters on the Mosul plains, and in the Summer comes up to the Turco-Persian border near Nochia, Gawar and upper Mergawer. Many of these Harkai families have begun during the last ten years to settle in lower Mergawer, and to intermarry with the Khurds whom they find there. They even go to the length of dispossessing some of the local Persian landlords of their barley-fields on the northern slopes of the hills overlooking the Urumiah plains. While I was in Urumiah, I more than once heard Persians speaking of the encroachments of the Khurds, as bitterly as the Armenian peasants of the Van district. This necessity of the Khurds for expansion is one of the most potent causes of their national unrest. It is the absence of a guiding and controlling hand that has turned this natural movement into undesirable channels. Unfor- tunately, good influences from outside have been con- spicuously absent on the Turco-Persian borderland during the last decade.
As an example of border politics, the story of the well- known Khurdish chief Simko of the Kotur region will sufhce. In 1904 Jaffar Agha, the head of the Avdois Khurds of Somai and Chiari, rebelled against the Vice-
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roy of Azairbijan, who sent troops to arrest him. Jaffar escaped into Turkey, where he was well treated by the Governor of Van. In time he obtained Turkish money and some rifles, and, returning to Chiari, again defied the Viceroy, who now tried the usual Oriental game. Messengers were dispatched with presents and a hearty invitation to come as an honoured guest to Tabriz. Jaffar was deceived, and went, only to be received not with hospitality but with bullets, one of which passed through his head and finished him. His house was then burnt, his lands were seized and given to the chief of the Shikoik tribe of Baradost. Thereupon the murdered man's brother, Simko, fled into the hills, and established himself at Kotur, an old castle in a narrow valley, some two days' journey south of Mount Ararat. Now this Kotur valley was an important strategic point, for it guarded the passage between the Van vilayet and the Khoy plain, through which a Russian army might invade Armenia, or a Turkish army might invade the Caucasus. Simko was therefore worth a price. Caravans began to arrive at his castle from the north early in the year 191 2 with guns and rouble notes. He suddenly became very rich and powerful, and acquired control over all the Khurds of the borderland, from Mount Ararat down to the Baradost plateau. Meanwhile the Turks, profiting by the disorders, had sent troops into Persian territory, and were claiming a rectification of the frontier, so as to bring it down to the south-west corner of Lake Urumiah. The ostensible reason was to protect the Sunni Moslems of the Urumiah plains, formerly nomadic Khurds, but now settled. But the real reason was that the Turks wished to get control of the important strategic points
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of the Urumiah and Sulduz plains in the event of war with Russia. Simko, the Russian stalking-horse, mean- while began raiding the Van vilayet, and carrying off Armenian cattle and women. The Turks could not touch him, because he always managed to escape across the Persian frontier to his castle, where it was dangerous to follow him. Moreover, he had the protection of Russia. The Armenians of Van began to complain loudly of Simko and his depredations, and next year, the disorder created by this Khurd having reached the desired pro- portions, Russia came out with the Armenian Reform Scheme, declaring that the disorders in the Van vilayet were no longer endurable to her. The history of the Armenian Reform Scheme I deal with in Chapter VIII. When war broke out in August 1914, Turkey, before she had joined the war, sent guns and ammunition to the Sunnis and Shikoik Khurds of Somai and Bara- dost, while Russia strengthened Simko. In November 1 914 Simko, assisted by Russian troops, advanced south- wards, and occupied his former home at Chiari, while the Turks with the Shikoiks captured Somai. Then came Enver Pasha's great Sary-Kamish advance in December, and Djevdet Pasha's Van army of 10,000 men occupied Salmas. The Russians retired to Khoy, and their protege, Simko, who had cost them so dear the last three years, — stayed behind ! After the arrival of Halil Bey's army in April, while Djevdet Pasha was busy with the Armenians at Van, an attempt was made to win Simko back, and by a secret messenger he was offered untold wealth, if he would only assassinate Halil Bey. Simko was in his old castle at Chiari entertaining some Turkish officers when he received this secret
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message. Halil Bey was on the plain of Dilman. some ten miles to the east, while the Russians were in the hills to the south of the Khoy plain. Hearing of the Armenian rebellion at Van, and thinking that probably the Turks would not see the business through, Simko decided to try the Russians again. He set out one night with all his Khurds, and ordered his Turkish guests to follow him. They rode through the darkness all night, and at dawn they saw the camp-fires of the Russians. " Here," said Simko to the Russian commander, " behold my loyalty ! I have delivered your enemies into your hands." But the Russians were not quite so much impressed as he had hoped ; and for the next six months Simko, chief of Kotur and Chiari, retired to the Caucasus accom- panied by an ever-watchful Russian policeman. Now that Russia has undisputed control of this corner of Azairbijan, Simko has been allowed to return, having duly served the purpose of puppet, intriguer, assassin, and spy, meanwhile changing sides at least twice. This is a typical story of Turco-Persian border-politics, as they have been going on for 2,000 years, right up till yesterday.
It is customary in Europe to look upon the Khurd as cruel and bloodthirsty by nature, and given to creating disturbances for sheer devilry's sake. But when a race is situated in a country lying between two greedy Empires, both continually intriguing, bribing, threatening, invading, and always thinking more of their own selfish imperial interests than of the interests of the people they are dealing with, is it likely that such a race will fail to develop the character of fickleness towards foreigners ? There is only one way to secure the peace
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and development of Khurdistan, and that is by the exercise of a little honesty, that quality so rare in diplomacy. If the governing power deals fairly with the natives, improves roads, irrigates the land, and builds schools, the object of which is not merely to teach the children garbled history about their own country, the natives will then become confident, and turn their activities to works of production rather than of destruc- tion. Khurdish unrest is very largely a symptom of dissatisfaction with the neighbouring Powers, that are trying to gain control of the country by dubious methods.
The Khurds are probably the descendants of that race which at the dawn of history occupied the highlands of the Taurus range. Periodically descending into the rich lands at their feet, and founding dynasties over the lazy inhabitants of the oases, they have in times past acquired powerful influence over Persian affairs. The ancient kingdom of Media was probably formed by one of these Khurdish incursions. They have in turn fallen greatly under Persian cultural influences, and their lan- guage is distinctly Iranian. But since the rise of the Ottoman Empire, part of them have fallen under Turkish influence. Setting aside the Kizil Bashis, who are prob- ably the relics of another partially Khurdicized high- land race, and the Jaff Khurds in Mesopotamia, there are two main cultural groups. The western group, in- habiting eastern Asia Minor up to the Turco-Persian border, speaks a Kirmandji dialect of Khurdish, con- taining a certain admixture of Turkish words. The eastern group in north-western Persia speaks Mukri, which shows strong traces of Persian influence.
Socially, the Khurds are divided into two castes. The
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military Asshirets are the rulers, and comprise the chiefs with their horsemen and retinue. They are the landowners, exacting tribute and holding every privilege. Beneath them are the Rayats, the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Asshirets. They do not as a rule bear arms, and confine themselves in the main to cultivating the land on the edge of the Taurus highlands. I am inclined to think that the Rayat Khurds are tending more and more to settled habits, while the Asshirets cling more stubbornly than ever to nomad life, and to their habits of raiding, in order to find grazing-lands for their flocks.
A few days after my arrival in Urumiah, Russian infantry began to come in from the north, and with them the Russian Consul, M. Basil Nikitine. There had been no military authority here for two weeks, since the Russians had left at the beginning of August, and, fortunately, the Turks, who only had a company of askers at Sujbulak in the Sulduz plain, judged it unwise to venture up to Urumiah. Their main force lay on the southern slopes of the Taurus to the north of Mosul. So a large strip of territory, including the eastern end of the Taurus, was entirely unoccupied. In this no- man's-land were living all the Khurdish tribes with their chiefs, who at the outbreak of war had made the great raid upon Urumiah and Sulduz. At the advent of the Russians they had retired to the mountains, and were now left high and dry between the two armies.
Shortly after his arrival in Urumiah, M. Nikitine wisely decided upon a policy of conciliation towards these Khurds. He thereupon announced a general am- nesty, if they would come in and make their peace with
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Russia. The situation was serious. In the mountains were large forces of Khurds, who at any time might receive reinforcements from the Turks, and descend upon Urumiah again. They had with them large numbers of Assyrian Christians, whom they had made slaves in their first raid. They were also occupying the uplands, where the Persians and Christians of the plain had their barley crops ; the season was advancing, and these crops ought to be gathered or famine would threaten the plain. But the Khurds were too frightened to come in and make peace. Knowing that Dr. Packard had great influence among them as a disinterested medical man, the Russian Consul proposed to him that he should visit them in order to explain the conditions of the amnesty and tell them not to be afraid. I accompanied him ; and in case we should meet any Turks, I arranged beforehand with the doctor that I should pose as his medical assistant. When travelling in the East you must always impress yourself in some way or other upon the natives. If you have come for the purpose of political propaganda, you should represent yourself as at least the Ambassador of an Emperor. If you have come with the intention of converting souls, you should pose as a religious fanatic, preferably a Dervish. If on the other hand you are a student of racial questions, or are anxious to act as a mediator or pacificator, the best role that you can adopt is that of a doctor ; whether real or quack depends upon your medical knowledge. In Dr. Packard's case it was the former ; in mine, unfor- tunately, it could only be the latter.
On September 8th we started off on our horses from the Mission-compound at Urumiah to visit the Khurds upon
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the foothills of the Taurus. We heard that there were a number of Assyrian Christians, whom Abdulla Agha, the head of the Begzadi tribe of Mergawer, was holding up from returning to their homes in Urumiah. Our road lay along the plain parallel with the mountains in a south- easterly direction. We passed the Cossack outpost, stationed on a little knoll to guard the way to the city, and reached large open spaces covered with drooping wheat and barley, for the war had stopped all the work of harvesting here. Burnt villages and ruined vineyards were seen on every side. A little farther on an over- powering stench was wafted to our nostrils. By the side of a stream lay the bodies of two dead Khurds, blackened and twisted by the sun. They had been killed a few days before in a skirmish with a Cossack patrol. We crossed the Dizerteke river by an old bridge, and after resting our horses in the cool shade of the willows by its banks, we pushed on. An hour later we reached an encampment on an open flat, where we found a large party of Assyrian Christians, who were afraid to move lest the Khurds should attack them and prevent them from reaching Urumiah. They were in a pitiable plight, clad in rags, and with no means of support except a few rapidly emptying bags of maize. They welcomed us with joy, for their situation was becoming desperate. The Khurds, they said, were only a short distance beyond. We told them to pack up their tents and go north, as there was no one in their way in that direction. We now set out to find the Khurds, and crossing the low hills that overlook Dize, reached the borders of Dole. Suddenly there sprang out of the ground all round us the figures of men who came running towards us calling
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out, " Hakkim Sahib ! Hakkim Sahib ! " The Khurdish outposts had recognized Dr. Packard, and were running to him with salutations. We had no military escort with us, and we carried not a single rifle or revolver ; our sole protection was a medicine-bottle and some presents of silk and sugar. Yet not only were we not harmed, but these rough Khurds actually started righting among them- selves as to who was to escort us to their chief. Some had horses ; others had not ; and those who had none, stole the horses of those who had. So for the rest of the way we were accompanied by a group of superb horsemen all glittering with Oriental trappings, while behind us followed on foot a bawling, screaming, cursing crowd, threatening the most appalling death, destruction, muti- lation, and finally utter damnation in hell, if their fellow- warriors did not instantly give up their horses. In this triumphal procession we entered Dize, where in the large caravanserai Abdulla Agha was residing. Hearing the noise, the chief ordered some of his bodyguard to go and find out what it was all about, and on being told, ordered the insubordinate soldiers to be driven out with thongs. What happened we never saw, but from the so and of the whackings and squealings it would appear that dire punishment was meted out. When we entered, Abdulla Agha was squatting on a carpet in the upper storey of the caravanserai. He rose instantly and treated us with all the civility and hospitality that Oriental manners prescribe, even if it is the intention of the host to put strychnine in your coffee that evening, or smother you with pillows during the night. The Agha was a picturesque middle-aged man, with baggy trousers, short tunic and peaked head-dress. After the evacuation of
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the Turks he had, like many European Powers, persuaded himself that it was in the interests of civilization to plant himself down on his neighbour's property, and gather all the fruits he could lay his hands on. Dize, being the road-centre between the Urumiah plain and Sulduz, was a convenient spot in which to set himself up as dictator of the countryside, and levy tribute from the surrounding villages and from any passers-by upon the roads. It was in the hope of putting a stop to this state of affairs, as well as of passing the Christians on to Urumiah, that we had come to visit the Agha ; and the conversation of Dr. Packard with him during the evening turned upon these subjects. As a result the Christians were told to accompany us back to their homes next morning, and promises were given that not quite every cow and chicken should be taken from the village of Dole. I then asked the Agha about the history of his tribe, and he confirmed my idea that many of these Khurdish tribes have been moving in a northerly direc- tion for the last fifty years. His father, he said, used to live near Mosul, and came up to the Persian frontier for the summer pasture ; but after some years he remained where he brought his flocks in summer, because he found he could get on better there. The Agha himself had been born within the boundaries of Persia, and had evidently acquired a certain degree of Persian culture. I asked him about the Persian classics, and found him acquainted with them. ' The words of Saadi ", he said, " bring light to the eye and warmth to the heart ". He had even learnt to speak, like a Persian, in metaphors. Like all his ancestors who had invaded this land before him, he was himself being slowly invaded by its culture.
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On the evening of September 9th we were back again in Urumiah, having brought some two hundred Assyrian Christians back to their homes. On September 12th Dr. Packard heard that Bedr Khan Bey, the chief of the Begzadi tribe of Dasht, was on the hills above the city, wanting to come in and make peace. A Khurdish horse- man with a white flag had come down the river-valley to announce his master's approach. We set out on our horses at once, but on reaching the appointed spot, we could see nothing. We then lay down among a grove of poplars and sent forward a native Assyrian to scout. Presently we saw a large body of horsemen coming towards us, and recognized the Khurdish chief among them. There are few more picturesque sights in Asia than a cavalcade of Khurds surrounding their chiefs. Their quaint head-dresses, brilliant tunics and baggy trousers, all combine to tone down the ferocity with which they display their arms and ammunition, and are indeed an echo of the middle ages. Our next problem was how to pass them through the Cossack posts without frightening them, for at the sight of Russian soldiers their first impulse was to take to their heels, or else to get behind a rock and open fire. On being assured of Russia's good intentions, they were persuaded to approach ; and, after the necessary explanations with the Cossacks, we passed on into a shaded spot, where under a poplar-tree a conference took place between the chief and the Russian Consul. The Consul began : " Why have you been fighting against us ? " " Effendi ", was the answer, " I could not help it. My own men compelled me to do so ; and they were compelled by Karini Agha." " Don't you see the uselessness of fighting against Russia,
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who has been successful in every war that she has ever waged with Turkey ? There are twenty million Moslem subjects in the Russian Empire, and all of them are loyal and contented." These words had their effect. The chief agreed to make peace and keep it. But on the next Turkish invasion some two months later, he bolted with all his men, and has not been seen again.
On September 18th Dr. Packard and I decided to visit an important and powerful chief, Khurdu Bey, the head of the Begzadi tribe of Tergawer. He had refused to make peace, and was holding in his encampment on the mountains about forty Assyrian Christians, whom he had carried off from Urumiah and enslaved the previous winter. Early in the morning we rode off in a westerly direction over the Urumiah plain till we reached the Naslu river. Here we turned sharp to the south, and mounted onto a high plateau. This was Tergawer, the summer grazing ground of the Khurds, where many of the Assyrians and Persians used to grow their barley before the war. We passed over wide sweeps of down, and occasionally through barren stony defiles. The atmosphere became oppressive, and the silence weird and uncanny. Suddenly we saw against the sky-line the gaunt figure of a gigantic man, armed to the teeth, and standing with his arms folded. We recognized the for- bidding outline of a Khurd, one of the outposts guarding the encampment of Khurdu Bey, an apparition of a kind to freeze a man's blood. But Dr. Packard made straight for him in a bee-line. About a hundred yards from him he called out at the top of his voice, " Ho ! my brother ! The Hakkim Sahib has come to see you. Greeting and peace be to you ! " Instantly the forbidding demon on
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the rock became a child-like slave, and rushing down, fell before the doctor and kissed his hands and feet. We had stormed the outpost of the enemy, and our only ammunition was a pill which the doctor gave him, as he complained of a stomach-ache. Soon this Khurdish brave was leading us along a narrow path to where his chief lived. At last we reached the camp of Khurdu Bey in an alpine meadow under a great rock, from which fell a picturesque cascade. The spot marked the frontier between Persia and Turkey. To the east lay the whole plateau of Tergawer covered with grassy downs, and away beyond we could see the plain of Urumiah glowing with the golden light of distant corn-fields. The dark patches in the gold denoted poplar groves and leafy vine- yards, and away beyond lay Lake Urumiah, blue as a slab of lapis lazuli. A Persian proverb says, "Azairbijan is the eye of Persia ; Urumiah is the eye of Azairbijan ". Behind us stood tier upon tier of rugged and forbidding mountain-ranges, with their dark, windy valleys in which the Turks were waiting. From this spot Khurdu Bey could run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. If a patrol of Cossacks came up across Tergawer towards him, he could see them and bolt to the Turks. If the Turks came up these dark valleys from Neri, he could see them in time to bolt over to the Russians.
Dr. Packard and I rode up to a great tent of horse- hair matting stretched on poles. Round it stood pic- turesque bands of Khurds with curved daggers and scimitars. Khurdu Bey came out to meet us, and after many salaams and much bowing, led us into his tent. Here we sat down on mats, with rows of armed warriors all round us. Khurdu was a comparatively young
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man, small but well built, and with the sly eye of a fox. He had eleven wives and ten thousand sheep — a sign of wealth in Khurdistan. He was surrounded as he sat with us by a large retinue of relations, friends, advisers, and counsellors. Soon we became aware that some emissaries from the Turks were present. A small group of clean-shaven young men with fezzes kept to them- selves and talked in whispers. They had evidently come up to induce Khurdu to come over to their side. Dr. Packard began by suggesting that the Urumiah plains were pleasant and healthy at this time of the year, and that the grapes were now ripe. Khurdu replied that he did not want to stay up on the cold mountains, for the winter would soon be coming on ; but he did not know if it was safe to come to the Urumiah plains. He had the idea of going down to the Mosul plains in Mesopotamia for the winter. The Turkish emissaries had got there before us, and had the first say. Seeing that it was im- possible to do anything unless we could be alone with him, when we should be able to appeal to his personal feelings, Dr. Packard suggested that we should go into his private tent. To this he agreed, and so we entered a tent in which we found a large and varied assortment of things : china vases, silk embroideries, carved book-shelves, an inlaid table, a wardrobe, a four-post bed, and a piano, — all of them last winter's loot from Urumiah. Now we understood the very potent reason why their owner was not anxious to visit Urumiah. We squatted down on the floor, and Dr. Packard began to talk to him about the Assyrians, whom he held in slavery. Could he not release them ? It was written in the Koran that he who shows justice and mercy will be rewarded with Paradise. The
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families of these poor Christians were pining for those whom they loved, and the women were starving in the absence of the breadwinners. Those who did a kind deed would be rewarded by the Lord. So spoke the doctor. Outside the tent a fanatical " sheikh " in a green turban walked up and down. He was trying to influence Khurdu Bey not to give up the Christians, and kept quoting from the Koran in a sing-song voice : " Kill those who join other gods." But the magic of the doctor's words pre- vailed upon Khurdu. He nodded thoughtfully and said nothing ; but much was passing through his brain.
Early next morning the Christians were there, and as soon as they saw the Hakkim Sahib, they fell down and kissed his feet. We said good-bye to Khurdu Bey, and said that we hoped to see him in Urumiah. Then we started back for the plain with the forty Assyrians, yelling and running ahead of us in their joy. For five months they had been kept on the mountains as slaves and camel- herdsmen for the chief, living from hand to mouth and half starving. All hopes of ever seeing their families had been abandoned by them, and they were sinking into a melancholy of despair. Now by a few simple healing words the doctor had cut the cord and set them free. Such is the power of a strong character, protected only by honesty, even among the untutored border-raiders of Khurdistan. We never saw Khurdu again ; he left with the Turks a month later, and during the winter died of a disease. On the evening of the next day we reached the Mission-compound at Urumiah with our delivered Assyrians, who speedily dispersed to their families.
In the last week in September I was laid low by the hand of fate. Jumping out of a carriage when the horse had
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run away, as we were driving back from the city to the Mission-compound on the evening of September 23rd, I suffered concussion of the brain, and was laid up for two weeks. When I got well it was nearly time for me to get on my way again, for I intended to visit Van. Before I left, however, I learned something about the American Presbyterian Mission at Urumiah and its history.
In 1834 the Rev. Dr. Perkins went out from America to Urumiah under the Presbyterian Board to work among the Nestorians, or Assyrian Christians of the ancient church of the Patriarch Mar Shimon. The object at first was to educate the people, but to leave the church alone. In 1855 however a misunderstanding arose. The adherents of the old church, thinking there was a tendency on the part of the missionaries to establish an Evangelical church in competition with that of the Patriarch, broke away and refused to have anything more to do with the missionaries. From that time forward both the reformed Evangelical church and the unreformed Nestorian existed side by side on the Urumiah plain, until the Nestorian disappeared within the last ten years, owing to the Russian Orthodox propaganda. The Orthodox church, being largely a political organization, became a useful instru- ment for Russian influence in Azairbijan. All the old Nestorians had found it convenient to go over to Ortho- doxy in response to bribes, and the offer of political privileges. In 1879 the Urumiah college was founded, consisting at present of the boys' section in the compound outside the city, which, when I was there, had about eighty boarders, and of the girls' school for Moslems and Christians (sixty boarders) within the city. A general education with elementary science and industrial handiwork is given,
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and Bible teaching is obligatory for both Christians and Moslems. The pupils are of course mainly Christians ; but of late years Moslems have begun more and more to send their children to these schools. The excellent in- fluence of the education given by the American colleges is unfortunately marred by the fact that it tends to touch only the Christian section of the community, leaving the Moslems until recently almost unaffected. The result is that the Christians tend to absorb Western ideas very rapidly but too often superficially, while the bulk of the Moslems remain in the apathy of the old school of Islam. The Constitutional movement among the intellectual Moslems, while dominating large centres like Tabriz, Teheran, Isfahan, and Kermanshah, hardly affected border cities like Urumiah. Hence the Assyrians and Persians of these regions have shown a tendency to drift apart in educational and political thought. Dr. Shedd, the head of the college, is however fully alive to these facts, and is doing all he can to deal with this aspect of the education problem.
It is not too much to say that the American Mission schools in Asia have been far better ambassadors of Euro- pean culture than the whole of the diplomacy and military force of the Powers. They are the only institutions in all this land, with the exception of the Archbishop of Canter- bury's Anglican Mission, which are absolutely disinterested and exist solely for the welfare of the people of the country. Every time that I have met with Armenians, Assyrians or Greeks, or sometimes a Persian or a Turk, who have been through one of the great American Mission-colleges of Asia Minor or Persia, I have always found that they have been perceptibly drawn towards Western Europe, and
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are thinking on much the same lines as young Americans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, or even Germans. If a young man has been for a few years to America, he generally returns a keen man of business, interpreting the phrase, " getting on ", in terms of the dollar. If he has been to Paris, he is perhaps too much inclined to dally with decadent art and literature ; but is also probably strongly imbued with some Western form of Socialism. German educational influence is extremely small, and Russian non-existent outside the frontiers of the Empire. The American and Anglican Evangelical Missions in the Near and Middle East can therefore be said, without any exaggeration, to be the chief agents of Western European culture among the people.
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CHAPTER IV
WITH THE ARMENIAN VOLUNTEERS ROUND LAKE VAN
On October 14th I said farewell to my friends in Urumiah, and with my little caravan of two horses set out for the Armenian highlands. I returned the same way that I came as far as Dilman, which I reached on the 16th, having spent the night in a Russian military post at Jellalabad. In Dilman I found hospitality in the house of an Assyrian doctor, David Johanan, and during the four days I was with him, he gave me the benefit of his great knowledge of this part of Persia. Soon after my arrival at Dilman, the whole plain of Salmas, in which the city lies, was flooded with Assyrian refugees. Thirty thousand starving and ragged human beings, headed by their Patriarch Mar Shimon, came pouring down from the mountains at the head-waters of the Tigris. Every day along the road to Bashkale, I met with streams of them in a terrible state of emaciation and exhaustion. On the arrival of the Patriarch I went at once to see him. He was a young man of little more than thirty, and had been elected at his birth from the patriarchal family by general agreement among the people. He and an old trusted adviser of his, Kashi Daniel, had a pitiful tale to tell.
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The Assyrians of the Nestorian Church, acknowledging the Patriarch Mar Shimon, live in the wildest and most inaccessible parts of the Taurus at the headwaters of the Great Zab, a tributary of the Tigris. I had looked into some of this country, when I went with Dr. Packard to visit Khurdu Bey, and had seen from a distance those steep precipitous valley slopes, where little villages, half dug in the rocks, are connected with each other by almost impassable tracks. One of the most ancient Churches in all Christendom still survives in this region. The Assyrians claim that they accepted Christianity directly from Simon Peter. At any rate, it is recorded in the 3rd century a.d. that they acknowledged a Patriarch in S3'ria. In time their form of Christianity spread all over Asia. Circumstances seemed to be favourable to them. The Roman Empire and its culture was decaying, and Persia was undergoing one of its usual revolutions and disorders, while the Sassanians were driving out the Arsakids. From the 5th to the 8th century the Nestorian Church had spread its influence right through Central Asia into China and India. According to Dr. Wigram, in his interesting book on the Assyrian church, the Assyrian Nestorians resisted union with the Greek Church largely from political motives. They themselves were mostly subjects of the kings of Persia, who were at constant war with the Romans, so it was naturally safer for them to have an entirely separate ecclesiastical organi- zation from the Greeks, in order to escape persecution from the Persians.
A considerable degree of tolerance, broken by occasional fits of persecution, was accorded the Assyrians till the rise of Islam. Then, just as fire-worship fell before the
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wave of Arab culture, the Nestorian form of Christianity also began to wane. Apathy, corruption and superstition had for centuries been creeping into both these religions, so that the Arabs with their simple faith from the desert could easily make converts. All that is left of this ancient Church has for the last three hundred years been clustering in those inaccessible valleys of the Upper Zab. Living in the same regions and under the same conditions as the Khurds, the Assyrians may possibly be derived from the same primitive mountain stock, which is found all through the Taurus. They are divided into six tribes or Asshirets, named after the valleys they occupy : Thuma, Tiari, Baz, Gelu, Heriki, and Girdi. Each have their hereditary chiefs, or Meliks, and all acknowledge the Patriarch Mar Shimon. Before the war, they numbered 79,000 persons, according to Lalayan (vide " Assyrians of the Van Vilayet," published Tiflis 1914). Now, in October 1915, barely 30,000 of them were retreating from their abandoned homes.
The story of the disaster which had befallen them is the same as that of every little people sandwiched in between two Empires. The relations between the Khurds and Assyrians at the commencement of the war were friendly. They were neighbours who grazed their flocks together on the mountains and traded with each other, while their children played together over the dirt- heaps outside their underground villages. Turkey joined the war, and still nothing happened to disturb the peace of these mountain valleys. All through the Winter of 1914-15 there was peace in the Taurus, while Russians and Turks were battering each other at Sary-Kamish. Then, in March, two Assyrians arrived
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with news from Russia at Kochanes, the village of the Patriarch. Russia, they said, would come and take the Assyrian highlands, and liberate the Christians groaning under the tyranny of the Turk. The Cossacks would be here any time now ; guns, ammunition, money, all would be forthcoming ; only let them rise up now against the common enemy of Christendom. Hasty counsels took place in dark underground rooms ; young men jabbered, and old grey-beards shook their heads. Some wanted to go at once to join the Russians ; others, seeing danger if the Russians should after all fail to come, counselled delay. All feared that if something were not done, and sides were not taken, the victors, whoever they might be, would turn on them and say, " He that was not with us was against us". While this was going on among the Assyrians, Turkish emissaries came to the Khurds. " The Giaour is coming ", they said. " Rise up and smite him. Your fellow Khurds are serving in the Hamidian regiments. We shall soon have all the Caucasus at our feet. Then the Empire of Islam will be great, and all its sons will be sure of Paradise and its houris." But amongst the Khurds also there were dissensions ; some would go, and some would not. " If we go to the Turks ", some argued, " they will take us and make us serve in Europe or at Gallipoli. Let us rather stay in our homes, or if we must fight, then let us fight our neighbours and get all the loot we can. If we fight elsewhere, there will be no loot for us, but only for the Padishah." While they were still discussing, news came that some of the more warlike among the Assyrian Meliks (chiefs) had gone to join the Russians. At once the more hot-headed among the Khurds saw a chance of plunder,
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and also the possibility of escaping service with the Turks in Europe. They jumped on their horses, raised the war- cry, and fired a few shots into the air. So war began in the Assyrian highlands. At the beginning of June a division of Turkish soldiers under Haider Pasha arrived at Tiari from Mosul. The Khurds in the meantime attacked Baz and Heriki, and the Assyrians retired to the passes north of Julemerk. But there were no signs of the Russians. Haider Pasha kept his division in Tiari, and made no serious attempt till August. Then some Turkish askers that had been left behind in Halil Bey's retreat from Dilman, joined with the Khurds, and in great force attacked the Assyrians, whose plight was now desperate. There was no help coming from Russia, and their ammunition was rapidly becoming exhausted. They abandoned Julemerk and Kochanes, and retreated as fast as they could to the plateau of Gawer. They found nothing but ruined villages and trampled crops on the way, for this was the line of Halil Bey's retreat three months before. They began to drop from starvation and exhaustion. The rear-guards were cut off, and killed or captured by the Khurds. All through September they withdrew northward, headed by their Patriarch, and at last reached the plain of Dilman, where they found the Russians.
This is the story told me by the leaders of these Assyrians just after their arrival in Dilman. Seeing the tragic plight of this ancient race, I sent a messenger at once to Mr. Shipley, the British Consul at Tabriz, and asked him to appeal for help to England. The American missionaries, foremost among whom was Mr. McDowall, cet to work to find food and shelter for the refugees. The money sent out from England was of very great assistance
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to the Patriarch in his efforts to save the remnants of his people.
On October 24th I started out from Dilman, the last Persian town before reaching the Turco-Persian frontier. I said farewell to the fertile plains of Iran and the warm shores of Lake Urumiah, where I had been basking in the sunshine for the last two months. In front of me lay- Armenia, wild and grim, cold and hungry. I followed the road taken by the Russian army-transport, which wound up the mountains forming the watershed between lakes Van and Urumiah. The road lay through the desolate rolling hill-country north of the Chiari valley, leading up to the Khan-Sor pass. Not a living soul was to be seen anywhere, and all the villages of the district had long ago been burnt. Towards evening a bitter blast from the North came on, so I stopped in a little side- valley to pitch my tent. I tethered the horses in a spot where some coarse grass grew by a stream, while my Armenian servant prepared a dish of hot rice and fat. We squatted down over a fire of camel-dung, and smelt that unforgettable smell which is so typical of Asia. In our tea we soaked Persian lavash, thin bread which keeps for two months in the dry. Next morning we rose early and rode up to the top of the pass. Here was the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and the hills dividing the basin of the Zab from that of Lake Urumiah. This is one of the passes over which the nomad hordes from Central Asia used to invade Asia Minor. I could see at once that there was no hindrance to their eastward and westward movement. The hills of the Turco-Persian frontier, although they run north and south, present no insuperable barrier to a passage east and west.
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Here then was the main cause of Armenia's misfortunes : there were no mountain barriers to protect her people from invasion from the East. At the same time I could see far away to the South the outline of the Taurus, the natural boundary between the Powers that control Armenia and Mesopotamia. Until modern science pierces those jagged walls of rock with a line of railway, there can be no outlet to the sea that way.
In front of me now was the great Armenian plateau. It looked cold and uninviting after the luxurious warmth and vegetation of Persia. I descended into a small upland meadow in the centre of which was the ruined village of Khan-Sor. My Armenian servant began to tell me tales about a great raid that took place here when he was a boy. Armenian revolutionary bands in 1896 had armed themselves in Persia, and had entered the Van vilayet by this pass. Their object appeared to be to hold the Upper Zab valley, and prevent the Turks from extending the massacre to this district. They do not seem to have been very successful, and my servant gave me full particulars of the torturings, burnings and hangings, with the added imagery of the East. On the afternoon of October 25th I descended into the broad valley of the Upper Zab. On a little hill above the river stood the ancient Armenian monastery of Deer. I found there an old Armenian monk living in the great cold building all by himself. The church was of the 10th century, and was surrounded by massive walls. In a fight between Russian and Turkish soldiers last winter, the Turks had used it as a fort. Much debris and stones lay about ; and as I wandered about inside the church I found all the pictures and icons destroyed by the Khurds. The
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old monk showed me the grave of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, who was buried here, according to Armenian tradition. It is said that he came up the Tigris after the death of Christ, and found a heathen Armenian king living here. The old monk showed me some stones in the wall of the church with curious signs on them ; these, he said, were the signs before which the Armenians wor- shipped, when they were heathen. St. Bartholomew converted the king, who in return buried the saint here. In the evening we cooked and ate a little food on the cold floor of the church, and then lay down to sleep in company with bats and owls. Such was the life of this old Armenian monk, who had escaped massacre the previous winter by hiding in the roof. Now he was living the life of an ascetic, fasting and praying and living at peace with the world, while all around was wild ruin, the product of war and civilization. How many an Armenian St. Francis may have lived in times past in this ancient monastery, burning his candle, mur- muring prayers, and worshipping in quiet that unseen light in the heart of man which teaches him, in solitude and silence, the nature of his being, and the insignificance of his self. Here on the Armenian plateau, amid war, pestilence and famine, that light was burning.
Next day I went on down the Zab valley, and soon came to a Russian camp, where a battalion of infantry was stationed to watch any movement of Turks from the direction of Gawer. I sent in my papers from the General to the Commander, Colonel Ivanoff, who asked me to come in and pitch my tent among the officers Many of them were educated men of the Moscow, Kiev
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and Kharkoff intelligentsia, and their thirst for news from the outside world was great. They were particularly interested in the Duma and its relations to the Govern- ment. I told them all I knew, which was not much, for I too had not seen a Russian paper for many weeks. Round the camp-fires in the evening we settled down to talk over the relative merits of Tolstoy, Dostoyefsky and Oscar Wilde. The group quickly split up into opposing camps of decadents, lyricists and realists. Other officers from the less educated class kept rather to themselves. They were engaged most of the evening in selling the horse-fodder, which the commissariat supplied, to passers-by on the road from Van. Next day, October 27th, I stayed in the camp, and had occasion to talk to some of the common soldiers. Their first question to me, on hearing that I had come from the outer world, was: "When is the war going to end? " The impression left on my mind after a talk with them was that they were anxious for the war to end, yet were prepared for it to go on for a hundred years if it was so ordered by fate. Their only idea of the causes of the war was that their governments had quarrelled, and therefore they had to fight. Once or twice I heard it remarked, that the cause of the war was that Germany was trying to take all her trade and wealth away from Russia ; but this came from some meschanin, or town-dweller of the middle class. The others were all peasants, and seemed completely submerged in a passive fatalism which bid them go like sheep whithersoever they were told, and do what they were ordered till the end of time. Centuries of life upon the great Russian plain, struggling hopelessly against nature, Tartars and autocrats, seemed to have made
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them the convenient tools of all who care to control them.1
On October 28th I continued my journey, and at mid- day reached the ruins of Bashkale on the slope overlook- ing the river Zab. In some rock-caves close by I came upon 2,000 Assyrian Christians, who had just escaped from the Thuma regions. They were dressed in rags, and living on raw wheat, which they roasted over fires of grass and straw. Many of the women and children were dead and dying, and disease was rampant. I gave them a letter to Colonel Ivanoff, who, I knew, would give them food, and direct them to Persia and the plains of Salmas. After passing Bashkale, I left the valley of the Great Zab and rode up a side-valley. We ascended steeply for three hours, till we reached the summit of the Chukha-Sadik pass (9,000 feet). From here I saw beneath me the basin of Van, but the lake and city were hidden by long sweeps of rolling hills. I descended into the plateau, and pitched my camp for the night by a little stream where I could pasture my horses. Several caravans of camels and donkeys passed by, led by Russian soldiers and Persians. This was the army-transport working between Dilman and Van.
On the morning of the 29th we continued our journey, passing the town of Hoshab at midday. Here a magni- ficent castle, Arab or Seljuk,