BAKU TRANSCAUCASIA AZERBAIJAN ORIENT OIL OILFIELDS OTTOMAN ASIA ARMENIAN RUSSIAN

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BAKU TRANSCAUCASIA AZERBAIJAN ORIENT OIL OILFIELDS OTTOMAN ASIA ARMENIAN RUSSIAN:
$34.89

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THE BOOK

blood AND OIL IN THE ORIENT

PUB: LONDON,NASH AND GRAYSON1931

AUTHOR: ESSAD-BEY ( LEV NUSSIMBAUM )

DATE: 1931

BOOK DESCRIPTION

NEAR FINE CONTEMPORARY HALF LEATHER BINDING WITH MARBLED BOARDS. CONTENTS FINE. 316 PAGES. LARGE 8 VO. SCARCE

316PAGES

SIZE: 8 VO ( LARGE )

BOOK CONTENTS

THE STORY OF THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF BAKU AND THEREAFTER.

The Battle of Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı döyüşü, Russian: Битва за Баку, Turkish: Bakü Muharebesi) in June– September 1918 was a clash between the Ottoman–Azerbaijani coalition forces led by Nuri Pasha and Bolshevik–Dashnak Baku Soviet forces, later succeeded by the British–Armenian–White Russian forces led by Lionel Dunsterville. The battle was fought as a conclusive part of the Caucasus Campaign, but as a beginning of the Armenian-Azerbaijani War.[3][4]

BackgroundFurther information: Persian Campaign and Caucasus CampaignFurther information: March Days

In 1917, the Russian Caucasus Front collapsed following the abdication of the Tsar. On 9 March 1917, the Special Transcaucasian Committee was established to fill the administrative gap in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the Russian Provisional Government in the Transcaucasia. This administration, which included representatives of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian groups, did not last long. In November 1917, the first government of the independent Transcaucasia was created in Tbilisi and named the \"Transcaucasian Commissariat\" (also known as the Sejm) following the Bolshevik seizure of power in St. Petersburg. On 5 December 1917, this new \"Transcaucasian Committee\" gave endorsement to the Armistice of Erzincan which was signed by the Russians with the command of the Ottoman Third Army.[5] Russian soldiers mainly left the front and returned to their homes. A number of Russian troops left for the Persian Campaign, contrary to the rules of the Armistice.[1] General Nikolai Baratov remained in Hamadan and at Kermanshah, a Russian colonel named Lazar Bicherakhov remained with 10,000 troops. Both forces were supplemented by British liaison officers.[1]

In 1918, the British invited the Armenians to hold out and picked officers and non-commissioned officers to form an \"advisory\" force, organizing them under the command of Lionel Dunsterville at Baghdad.[6] It was named the Dunsterforce.[6] The military goal of Dunsterforce was to reach the Caucasus via Persia while the Persian Campaign was active.[6] The British planned to organize an army to be recruited from the Armenians and other pro-Allied elements that still existed in the Caucasus.[6] On 10 February 1918, the Sejm gathered and made the decision to establish independence. On 24 February 1918, the Sejm proclaimed the Transcaucasia as independent under the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. The Transcaucasian Commissariat was anti-Bolshevik in its political goals and sought the separation of Transcaucasia from Bolshevik Russia. On 27 January 1918, the British mission Dunsterforce set out from Baghdad with officers and instructors to the region.[1] Dunsterforce was ordered to keep the Caucasus-Tabriz front intact and put a stop to Enver\'s plans.[1] On 17 February, Dunsterforce arrived at Enzeli; here they were denied passage to Baku by local Bolsheviks, who cited the change in the political situation.[1]

On 3 March 1918, the Grand Vizier Talat Pasha signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Russian SFSR. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk stipulated that the border be pulled back to prewar levels and that the cities of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan be transferred to the Ottoman Empire. Between 14 March - April 1918, the Trabzon peace conference was held between the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Sejm.

On 30 March 1918, the tenth day of Trabzon peace conference, the news of the internecine conflict & massacre of Azerbaijanis and other Muslims in Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate arrived. The following days witnessed the inter-ethnic warfare referred to as the March Days. It resulted in the massacre of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis by the Bolsheviks and armed Armenian units in the city of Baku and other locations in the Baku Governorate.[7][8][9] While before the \"March Days\" Azerbaijani leaders claimed autonomy within Russia, after these events they demanded only independence and placed their hopes no longer in the Russian Revolution, but in support from Ottoman Empire.[10]

On 5 April 1918, Akaki Chkhenkeli of the Transcaucasian delegation to the Trabzon peace conference accepted the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a basis for more negotiations and wired the governing bodies urging them to accept this position.[11] The mood prevailing in Tiflis (where the assembly located) was very different. Tiflis acknowledged the existence of a state of war between themselves and the Ottoman Empire.[11] Shortly after, the Third Army began its advance and took Erzerum, Kars and Van.[1] The situation was especially dire in the Caucasus, where Enver Pasha had wanted to place Transcaucasia under Ottoman suzerainty as part of his Pan-Turanian plan.[1] This would give the Central Powers numerous natural resources, including the oilfields of Baku. The control of the Caspian would open the way to further expansion in Central Asia, and possibly British India.[1]

On 11 May 1918, a new peace conference opened at Batum.[12] At this conference Ottomans extended their demands to include Tiflis as well as Alexandropol and Echmiadzin through which they wanted a railroad to be built to connect Kars and Julfa with Baku. The Armenian and Georgian members of the Republic\'s delegation began to stall. Beginning on 21 May, the Ottoman army moved ahead once again. The conflict led to the Battle of Sardarapat (21–29 May), the Battle of Kara Killisse (1918) (24–28 May), and the Battle of Bash Abaran (21–24 May).

On 26 May 1918, the federation dissolved initially with the Georgian declaration of independence (Democratic Republic of Georgia), quickly followed by those of the Armenian (First Republic of Armenia), and Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan Democratic Republic) representatives on 28 May. On 28 May 1918, Georgia signed the Treaty of Poti with Germany and welcomed the German Caucasus Expedition, seeing in the Germans protectors against the post-Russian Revolution havoc and the Ottoman military advances.[13] The government of Azerbaijan moved from Tiflis to Ganjak (or Ganja). At the same time, Germany turned to negotiations with the Soviet Russia and offered to stop the Islamic Army of the Caucasus in return for guaranteed access to Baku\'s oil. They reached an agreement on 27 August whereby Germany was to receive a quarter of Baku\'s oil production. The German government requested that the Ottoman Empire delay any offensive into Azerbaijan; Enver Pasha ignored this request.

In May, on the Persian Front, a military mission under Nuri Pasha, brother of Enver Pasha, settled in Tabriz to organize the Islamic Army of the Caucasus to fight not only Armenians but also the Bolsheviks.[1] Nuri Pasha\'s army occupied large parts of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic without much opposition, influencing the fragile structure of the newly formed state. Ottoman interference led some elements of Azerbaijani society to oppose Turks.[14]

On 4 June 1918, Azerbaijan and the Ottoman empire signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation, clause 4 of which held that the Ottoman empire would provide military assistance to Azerbaijan, if such assistance was required for maintaining peace and security in the country.

SCARCE