Serbest Forum

Notes pertaining to the Armenians’ attitude towards the Turks living
in Erzurum and in the settlements nearby, between the outbreak of
the Russian Revolution and the delivering of Erzurum by the Turkish
Forces on March 12, 1918.
These notes are appended to the “Notes on the State of the Second
Russian Artillery Regiment”. These notes are prepared separately to
serve as an individual document.
The Turkish-Armenian enmity that is known by the European and the
Russian public opinion has reached its peak with the events
experienced during the First World War.
Armenians’ aversion to the Turks is a renowned fact throughout the
ages. Armenians have always been successful in presenting
themselves as a nation subjected to heavy torture, and oppression by
the uncivilized bigoted Turks.
The Russians who had close relations with the Armenians to a certain
extent have developed different views on their level of civilization.
Armenians having considerably vile, surprising, and rapacious
character can only live off on others. However, the Russian peasants
have different judgments on them. I heard the Russian soldiers
saying, “Turks have only treated them roughly, but did not kill them.
They should have killed them to the last man!”
The Armenian troops among the Russian soldiers have always been
regarded as the most inferior. They have always preferred working in
the rear echelons rather than fighting at the fronts. The increases in
the desertion of the Armenians and in their wounding themselves are
all definite proofs of the idea developed.

The things I personally witnessed and heard during the two months
that passed until the Turkish forces’ delivering Erzurum are beyond all
the evil one would think of the Armenians.
None of the Armenians were allowed to enter neither in the city nor
in its environs during the occupation of Erzurum by the Russians in
1916. During the office of the Commander of the 1st Corps General
Kaltin, who was the commander of the forces in Erzurum and its
environs, no military units having Armenian troops were sent to this
region.
After the lifting of all the measures, following the Revolution,
Armenians attacked Erzurum and its environs in waves.
Synchronous to those attacks, the houses in Erzurum and in the
villages were pillaged and people were killed. The presence of the
Russian units and Russians were keeping the Armenians from
committing massacres. They were conducting massacres and
pillaging in secret and cautiously.
In 1917, the Erzurum Revolutionary Executive Committee, mainly
composed of the Armenian military personnel, launched a search for
confiscating the firearms the people had. As the searches could not
have been carried out properly, troops of uncontrollable mob
gradually started full scale pillaging. The Armenian troops did their
best to tyrannize and torture people during battles.
One day, as I was riding through one of the streets in Erzurum I saw
a group of soldiers, lead by an Armenian, dragging two elderly
Turkish people, both about 70 years old, along the street. An
Armenian soldier was carrying a whip made of wire fencing. Streets
were all covered with ditches and mud.
This mob, composed mainly of the Armenian soldiers, was dragging
these two poor elderly men in mud all over the street. The elderly
men were drenched in mud, and whenever they found an opportunity
to stand up they would drag them again and commit all sorts of
torture.
I tried hard to persuade them to behave in a civilized manner
towards those two poor elderly men. The Armenian soldier leading
the mob, walked over me with his whip made of wire fencing, and
shouted, “You are backing them are not you? They are killing us, and
you are backing them!” The mob started walking over me. At that
time, the Russian soldiers were so out of control that they were
beating, and even murdering the Russian officers.

Situation was getting worse. Upon arriving of a patrol column under the command
of an officer the situation changed. Armenians disappeared all of a
sudden. The patrol column saved those men and took them to their
homes without uttering any words of insult.
There was a danger of Armenians’ rushing into the region, right after
the withdrawing of the Russian units at their own initiative, and
committing massacres on the Turks until the arrival of the units of
other nations.
The prominent Armenians were guaranteeing that no such thing
would happen again. They were trying to make everybody believe
that all the measures for the establishment of neighborly relations
between the Armenians and the Turks were taken.
It was believed that peace and order would be established. After the
Revolution, the mosques used as dormitories and depots by the
Russian forces were all cleaned and evacuated. A joint police force
was set up with the inclusion of the Turks and Armenians. Armenians
were loudly advocating the setting up of Martial Courts and practicing
of capital punishment for those who committed massacres and
pillaging.
It was soon discovered that all were nothing but wiles and traps.
Turks who were taken into this police force started abandoning their
places immediately. Because, the Turkish night patrols started to
disappear all of a sudden and nothing was heard of them ever. Even
the Turks who were taken out of the city to work were not coming
back. The members of the Martial Courts established did not try or
punish any of the criminals as they feared to be sentenced to capital
punishment.
The number of the massacres and pillaging started to increase
steeply. One night, at the end of January according to old calendar in
other words at t the beginning of February; Armenian gangs
murdered Hacı Bekir Effendi, one of the most prominent people in
Erzurum, at his home. The Commander-in-Chief Odichelitzé1 ordered
the unit commanders the finding of the murderer within 3 days.
The Commander-in-Chief talked at the commanders of the Armenian
units condemning them, in its most general terms, about the
disgraceful deeds of their troops. He also said that he was extremely
offended by the pillaging and the brutal force exerted on the people.

1 Georgian origin Commander of the Russian Caucasian Army.

He voiced his anger about the Turkish people, who were taken out
from their homes under the pretext of having them work on the
roads, most of whom were somehow kept from returning. He
reiterated his ideas saying if the Armenians are really the owners of
the occupied Armenian territory, they ought to display their honesty
and the level of their moral values as a nation, thinking of the honor
of the Armenian nation; and that they ought to act within frame work
of the law; and do everything possible to curb all the barbarousness
and brutality committed by the mob. He pointed out that the
intellectuals were obliged to do it. Moreover, he said, at a time when
the handing of the occupied region over to the Armenians was not
yet decided at a peace conference, and at a time when the First
World War had not come to an end, the Armenians ought to obey the
rules of the law much more carefully.
The Armenian commanders of the Armenian units, and the
representatives of the troops declared that it was not appropriate to
libel the name of the Armenian nation by just equating them with a
couple of murderous gang members; that some of the deserters
might have wanted to take revenge on the past deeds of the Turks;
that the Armenian intellectuals were doing their best to curb those
events; and finally that they were thinking of taking decisive
measures and implement those measures.
Soon I heard that the Armenians were massacring the Turkish people
in Erzincan. I heard all the details of the massacres directly from my
Commander-in-Chief Odichelitzé in person.
The event happened as follows. The massacres were organized by a
doctor and a contractor. In other words it was not conducted by one
of the gang members. I cannot write the names of those two
Armenians as I do not remember their last names. More than 800
unarmed innocent Turks were massacred. Only an Armenian was
killed while the massacred were trying to defend themselves. They
slaughtered the people as if they were sheep. They had the people
whom they sentenced to death dig large ditches. They took the
people to edges of those ditches in groups and after having
butchered them like beasts they dumped them into those ditches.
One of the Armenians was counting the corpses thrown into ditches
and upon his saying, “Is there only 80 people? It can take 10 more!
Slaughter another 10!” disdainfully ten more people were slaughtered,
thrown into the ditch and the corpses were covered with earth.

This Armenian contractor is said to have ordered the taking out
innocent Turks from a building one by one. And he, just for fun,
chopped the heads of some 80 people one by one as they were
coming out of the door.
The deserter Armenians who were equipped with the most modern
weapons started to retreat towards Erzurum after the Erzincan
massacres. The Russian artillery officers, who were to protect the
logistics lines from the kurdish attacks, were forced to retreat with
their guns.
In one of those lines a necessity of placing a unit for a probable clash
occurred. The Armenians, who were discomforted with the orders,
set the Russian officers’ houses a fire while they were sleeping,
Russian officers barely managed to get out. Most of their war gears
were burned into ashes.
The Armenian mobs retreating from Erzincan to Erzurum
exterminated all the Muslim villagers they met on their way. The
artillery guns that were being withdrawn from the logistics support
lines were being transferred on the covered wagons. The wagons
were under the care of the hired, civilian and unarmed kurds. As the
convoy came closer to Erzurum, the Armenian deserters and the
troops started to kill those kurds at the places where they stopped for
a rest. They realized their evil deeds whenever the Russian officers
entered their rooms. Whenever the Russian officers came out of their
rooms on hearing the clamors, and tried to save the kurds, the armed
mob walked over, and threatened them with the same end.
Those massacres were carried out in the most repulsive manner. For
example, at a meeting held by the artillery officers at the Erzurum
Garrison, Lieutenant Mzivani narrated an incident he witnessed: an
Armenian soldier approached a kurd who was dying in agony,
running, and tried to push the stick in his hand into his mouth. As he
could not manage to push the stick into his mouth that was tightly
closed, he took the dying man’s clothes off, and started to kick his
naked body with his iron heeled boots.
All of those who could not manage to flee from Ilıca2
were massacred. The Army Commander [General Odichelitzé] said he saw
lots of corpses belonging to children whose throats were butchered
with blunt knives, and bodies cut into thin and long strips.

2 Ilıca district affiliated to Erzurum.

Lieutenant Colonel Gryaznof, who went to Ilıca three weeks after the
massacres, on his return on February 26 told me about a scene he saw
there: “the corpses are lying along the village roads in the open air. All
the Armenians going in the front were spitting on the corpses and
cursing at them. A mosque yard about 12-15 square sagenes [an area
roughly equal to 55-70 square meters] was covered with the corpses
of the senior Turkish citizens as well as of men, women, and children
that formed a pile reaching 1.5 meters in height. The traces of vile
assaults were observed on the women’s corpses. Rifle cartridges were
pushed into the genital organs of most of the women.”
Lieutenant Colonel Gryaznov said he had called two Armenian girls,
who were following a series of courses, to the mosque. They were
working as telephone operators at the detachment. He told them to
witness what the Armenians had accomplished there. Lt.Col.
Gryaznov found their joyous laughter bizarre.
Lieutenant Colonel reproved them severely expressing his anger and
indignation in fury. He asked, “How could the well-bred and well-
educated Armenian girls laugh and exhibit joyous behavior at the
sight of such an event?” He said, “This is an enough proof for
Armenians’, even their women’s, being more contemptible than the
wildest animals. This is even much more than an officer, who is
shaken by this sight, and who has seen many battles and terrible
events, can bear!” The Armenian girls replied him saying that they
laughed as a result of nervous breakdown.
A contractor working at the Alaca3 Logistics Support Command, told
us about a despicable event that took place in Alaca on February 27.
The Armenians nailed a Turkish woman upon a wall alive; took her
heart out and placed it on her head.
The first full scale massacre in Erzurum started on February 7. As it is
now claimed, the soldiers of the artillery regiment gathered some 270
Turks from the streets by force. They captured them and locked them
up in the baths in the barracks displaying their true intentions. I
managed to save only 100 of them. I have just learned that the others
were released by the soldiers after their learning about my arrival.
Under the light of the testimonies of the rescued, this vile attempt was
realized by the Armenian Reserve Officer Karagadayev, who was
temporarily appointed to the artillery regiment from the infantry units.
I still could not have determined his role in this event clearly.


3 A village affiliated to Ilıca district of Erzurum.

Several other Turkish people were killed in the streets that day.
Several Armenians, forming an execution squad, shot more than 10
unarmed civilian Muslims at the railroad station on February 12. This
gang threatened to kill the officers who tried to save those Muslims.
Meanwhile, I ordered the arresting of an Armenian who had murdered
a Turkish person for no reason at all. The General Commander of the
Caucasus Army had already given his permission for the founding of a
Court Martial in Erzurum in line with the previous stipulations prevailing
before the Revolution, with an authority give death penalty.
When one of the Armenian officers told this arrested Armenian that he
was going to be hanged he started to shout, “Where on earth have
you seen an Armenian hanged for killing a Turk?” offended.
Armenians started to set the all the Turkish markets in Erzurum afire. I
learned that all the Muslim villagers of Tepeköy4 – where Combatant
Artillery Regiment was situated – were massacred, regardless of their
age and gender by unidentified members of a gang on February 17.
I informed Antranik5 who came to Erzurum the same day. He ordered
the finding of the murderers. I do not know what came out of it.


4 A village affiliated to Erzurum.
5 Antranik Ozanyan, was born in 1865, Şebinkarahisar. He took part in the
insurgence of 1885 incited in Şebinkarahisar. He later went to Istanbul and
established contact with the Daschnaks, he fled to Batumi after killing a Turkish chief
of police. On May 16, 1895 he went to Sasun together with his 40 men, armed, and
joined Armenian Serop’s gang, and replaced him on his death. He massacred
numerous Muslims in Sasun and its environs in two years. He even attacked the
Armenian villages and tortured the Armenians by various means. He received arms
and ammunition support from the Russians. He went to Bulgaria in 1906, and he
massacred Muslims in Edirne, Keşan, Malkara, and in Tekirdağ together with his gang
during the Balkan War. When the Armenian voluntary regiments in the Caucasus
joined the First World War as the forward forces of the Russian army, the Armenians
in Selmas and its environs joined the Russian forces under his leadership. Antranik,
took over the office of Provost Marshall from Colonel Morel when he came to
Erzurum on March 2, 1918, dressed in Russian general’s uniform. After having
realized great damage and massacres he fled to Caucasus. He organized the
Armenians in Karabagh, Zengezur and its environs against the Turks. After the signing
of the Moúdhros Armistice, he dissolved his gang and went to Paris on May 15, 1919.
He sought support in London, Paris, and New York for the establishment of a greater
Armenia on the Turkish soil. By putting the blame of the massacres he committed on
the Turks, he propagandized that the Turks killed the Armenians. Antranik died in the
United States in 1927. He was indulged in farming until his death. As his corpse was
not welcomed to Erivan in the USSR, he was buried to Paris.
Haluk SELVI; “Anadolu’dan Kafkasya’ya Bir Ermeni Çete Reisi: Antranik Ozanyan”
[From Anatolia to the Caucasus, An Armenian Gang Leader: Antranik Ozanyan] in

Antranik had promised Russian artillery officers that he would set the
public order, and order of law. But neither his promises nor the
promises of Dr. Zavriyev, who was sent by the Southern Caucasian
Government just to set the public order, did not prove anything but
vain words.
The chaos in the city decreased. Silence prevailed in the villages
where the inhabitants disappeared. When the Turkish forces started
to march over to Ilıca, the Armenians started to arrest the Muslims in
the town again. The arrests intensified a great deal during February
25-26.
The Armenians carried out massacres by dodging the Russian officers
in the evening of February 26, in Erzurum. They retreated with the
fear of approaching Turkish army.
The number of the massacred Muslims reached 3.000 that night. To
be more explicit, the massacres were not fortuitous events but
premeditated. They were all committed in accordance with a plan
devised that was first put into practice by arrests. There was no time,
they had such a small force; they could not even keep their position
from an enemy force of 1.500 men and 2 artillery guns. They lost too
many lives.
The prominent Armenians could have stopped the massacres. The
responsibility of those massacres lived through cannot be put on the
gangs solely. As far as I observed recently the Armenians from the
lower end of the social strata were strongly adhered to the
intellectuals of the community, and especially to the orders issued by
some of them.
I believe it will be sufficient enough to confess that we did not have
any power to fight decisively against the banditry and misbehavior
right from the early days. Although the command echelons of my
regiment were mostly composed of the Russian officers, the troops
were mostly composed of the Armenian soldiers.


Sekizinci Askerî Tarih Semineri Bildirileri [Proceedings of the 8th Military History
Seminar]. XIX. ve XX. Yüzyıllarda Türkiye ve Kafkaslar. Vol: I. Ankara: Gnkur. ATASE
Bşk.lığı Yayınları, 2003. pp. 459-473.

Moreover, during the night of the massacres none of the kurdish
stablemen was killed in the yard where the wagon wheels were kept;
although there was only one officer on guard. At least the officers
under my command have reported to me as such. Kurds were totally
unarmed there. A couple of meters away there were some 40
Armenian soldiers fully armed.
I do not want to go further and say, nor can I claim that all the
prominent Armenians were guilty. No. I saw conscientious people
asserting that pursuing of such policies was wrong; that such politics
was nothing but vileness. Those Armenians, rebelled against the
swinish instincts of their own people, and they even fought against
them. There were hardly any of those people among the Armenians.
They were being obliterated by the majority on the charges of
treason against the Armenian cause. Other Armenians were showing
themselves as the warriors of truth and goodness in the presence of
the others, and thus were trying hard to conceal the reality of their
being crossbred with the kurds by putting mask of hypocrisy;
considering themselves related to the issue used to retort Russian
reproaches saying, “You are Russians! You can never understand the
Armenian nation’s ideals!” Those people did not want to understand,
and could not understand that the nobility of the soul was an
untouched diamond and it would stay a diamond no matter what the
circumstances were.
Against the Russian reproaches and indignation for them on their
massacring the Turks there was another group claiming “How do you
know that the Turks did not do all this to libel the Armenians? Can
not it be a provocation?”
The events proved the forces affecting the intellectual Armenians. No
one can deny the events happened. Armenians sow wind, but they
have forgotten that one who sow wind would reap the whirlwind!
Deputy Commander of the Fortified Artillery Post at Deveboynu,
Erzurum
Commander of the 2nd Armenian-Russian Fortress Artillery Regiment
Prisoner of War
Lt.Col. Tverdohlebov
April 16/29, 1918
Erzurum

In mid-December 1917, the Russian Caucasus Army withdrew from
the front at its own discretion; without the permission of the Army
Command or of the Supreme Command.
The Erzurum Fortress Artillery Regiment retreated together with the
army. Only 40 officers form the Fortress Artillery Regiment, and the
administrative staff at the Deveboynu6
Fortified Area Command
remained.
These officers remained there to take care of the guns that were
deserted by the soldiers. Other officers had also left. There were
more than 400 guns at the fortified positions. There were no forces
to pull the guns from the region. Guns had to be left in their
positions. The officers dominated by the ideal of mission and honor
remained with the guns. They were waiting for the arrival of new
troops or for the orders to be issued by the Supreme Command.
The 2nd Erzurum Fortress Artillery Regiment was set up with the
remaining officers of the 1st Regiment.


6 A passage between the Erzurum and Pasinler plateaus.

Following the withdrawal of the army, an Armenian revolutionary
organization was established in Erzurum. They named themselves as
the “Armenian Military Unit”. Some 400 Armenians, all of whom were
novices, were given to the command of the 2nd Erzurum Fortress
Artillery Regiment. Some of them deserted in no time. The remaining
was barely sufficient for keeping guard of the guns in the positions or
to be used as sentinels.
An internal fighting had already begun in the Northern Caucasus just
before the withdrawal of the army from the front. A government was
founded in the Southern Caucasus. This provisional government
assumed the name of “Southern Caucasus Commissariat”7.
The Commissariat declared that they were not an independent entity,
that they took up the control from the Russian government
temporarily until the establishment of a new central government, and
that the Southern Caucasus shall continue to live as an indispensable
part of Russia.
The Southern Caucasus Commissariat declared the formation of a
new army to replace the army that withdrew with a circular on
December 18, 1917. This new army was to embrace Russian,
Georgian, Armenian, Muslim corps; and the small units were to be
composed of small tribes like Romaics, Assyrians, Osetins8.
Until the clarification of the command of the artillery units, the
Erzurum and Deveboynu Fortified Region Artilleries maintained their
multinational command. The command echelon was thoroughly
composed of the Russian officers whereas the troops were composed of the Armenians.


7 Following the Russian Revolution, all the parties, associations, military committees,
army commanders in Tbilisi and Southern Caucasus convened and declared a
provisional government on October 11, 1917. With the inclusion of the Georgians,
Azerbaijanis, and Armenians they found the Southern Caucasus Commissariat, which
had a federal government structure.
İzzet ÖZTOPRAK. “Maverayı Kafkas Hükümeti” [Regional Government of the
Caucasus]. Sekizinci Askeri Tarih Semineri Bildirileri I [Proceedings of the Eighth
Military History Symposium I]. Ankara: Genelkurmay Basımevi, 2003, p. 127.
8 Osetians are believed to be the last generation of the historical Alan peoples living
in the Northern Caucasus. The Osetians call themselves Eron (some call themselves
Gron). Their language is said to be very close to the Polowi, an ancient Iranian
Dialect. Today, the Osetins are living in two autonomous administrations in Northern
Osetia and Southern Osetia located on the either side of the Caucasus Mountain
Range. Ottoman State received a wave of Osetian migration as of 1864. Today they
are living around Muş and Sarıkamış.
Hayri ERSOY, Aysu KAMACI. Çerkes Tarihi [History of the Circassians], 3. Ed.
İstanbul: Tümzamanlar Yayıncılık, 1994, p. 128-129.

Nobody regarded those artillery units as Armenian
units for the command echelons and the artillery regiment
commander were Russian. None of the orders issued stated that
those artillery units were Armenian. Those units continued keep their
former Russian names. We all served in those units affiliated to the
Russian artillery forces. We received our salaries from the Russian
treasury; and worked under the command of the Russian Army
Commander, and the Russian Commander-in-Chief. There was a
Russian Church and a Russian priest in the regiment. There was no
Armenian church.
Two months had passed after the withdrawal of the Russian army.
There were no new reinforcement troops coming. There were no
troops coming from the other nations. Discipline could not have been
maintained in the regiment. The soldiers were continuously deserting
the army, and looting civilians, threatening the officers, performing
disobedience openly.
Colonel Torkom, whom I heard was a Bulgarian Armenian, was
appointed to the Central Command of Erzurum.
In mid-January, several Armenian soldiers from the infantry units,
massacred one of the notable people in Erzurum at his home, and
pillaged his house. I do not remember the name of the massacred
person.
The Supreme Commander Odichelitzé summoned all the unit
commanders, and ordered the finding of the murderer within three
days’ time forcefully. He especially told the Armenian officers that
such behavior of the Armenian troops caused the libeling of all the
Armenians and said that the Armenian people’s honor demanded the
finding of the murderers. In his speech he also added the necessity
of putting a decisive end to the atrocities and the violation committed
by the Armenians on the townspeople. He, moreover, said, he would
have to give firearms to the Muslim people in the town to protect
themselves.
Colonel Torkom, in an offended and reproachful manner said that the
Armenian people would never do such a thing; that the atrocities and
the pillaging committed by a couple of bandits could not be ascribed
to the whole Armenian nation; that all those should not serve the
libeling of a nation.

The unit commanders asked for the establishing of the Martial Courts
for the practicing of the Penal Code, and for giving death penalty from
the Supreme Commander. The Supreme Commander said he was not
authorized to put the death penalty into practice at his discretion, but
that he had already applied for the enforcement of the discipline law. I
do not know whether the murderers were found or not.
At the end of January, if I am not mistaking on the 25th, Colonel
Torkom held a prayer ceremony, and a military parade containing 21
salute shots fired from the guns, in Erzurum. He explained, he did it
out of a necessity to improve the morale of the garrison, and to show
the townspeople the power of the garrison. During the parade, where
General Odichelitzé was present, Colonel Torkom read a speech, which
none of us understood, in Armenian from the notes he was holding.
We later learned that he declared the establishment of the
autonomous state of Armenia openly; and declared himself as the
administrative tsar of this autonomous state. General Odichelitzé upon
learning all about it expelled Colonel Torkom from Erzurum.
We understood that the government would never allow the
establishment of a free Armenian state. I used to hear frequently, that
the authorities at the Army Command Headquarters reproached the
Armenian administrators saying none of the equipment, which in fact
belonged to the Russian army, taken from the depots, and from the
fronts by the Armenians were handed over to the Armenians, that the
equipment were given to their control temporarily; that they were
entrusted to them for protection until the coming of the new troops.
Meanwhile, the Armenians had slaughtered the unarmed and innocent
civilian Turks in Erzincan. We heard that the Armenians were fleeing
towards Erzurum as the Ottoman units were approaching the region.
According to the information the General Headquarters received and
the according to the testimonies of the Russian officers coming from
Erzincan the Armenians had slaughtered some 800 Turks. Only an
Armenian was killed as a result of self-defense. We later learned that
the desperate unarmed Turks in Ilıca village, near Erzurum, were also
slaughtered.
On February 7, 1918, in the afternoon, the militias’ and soldiers’
gathering men in the streets of Erzurum in masses and sending them
to an unknown destination in groups attracted my attention. When I
inquired, they said they were sending them to the railway station to
sweep the snow on the rail tracks.

Towards 15:00 in the afternoon, one of the Russian officers –
Lieutenant Lipskiy – reported to me on the phone that several
Armenians caught six Turkish men in the streets, and having
interrogated them in a corner in the courtyard they started to beat
them, and the beating would likely to end in murder. Lieutenant said
that he could not help those Turks. Because the Armenian soldier
threatened him with fire arms for he attempted to save those Turks.
An Armenian officer, there, refused to stop those soldiers.
Taking three Russian officers, nearby, I ran to the barracks to save
those desperate Turks.
On my way, Lieutenant Lipskiy and the Mayor of Erzurum Stavrovskiy
intercepted me saying that they were looking for a Turkish friend of
theirs among the Turks caught by the Armenians.
They said the soldiers resisted to their entrance in the barracks
courtyard. We moved a little further. When we approached the
barracks, we saw some 12 Turks running away through the courtyard
door in fear, struck with terror. We managed to stop only one of
them, but we could not talk to him as we did not have a translator
there. Without meeting any obstacles I entered the courtyard. I told
them to take me to the place where they took the innocent people
whom they had gathered in the streets. They said there was nobody
from the public in the barracks. I began to search the barracks. I
found 70 Turks locked up in the barrack baths in fear and struck with
terror. I immediately launched an investigation. Arresting the six
soldiers who were declared to be the instigators, I set all the arrested
Turks free.
During the investigation I learned that an Armenian, whose name I
could not learn, shot an innocent, sick old man standing on the roof
of one of the houses around with a rifle on the same day.
Unfortunately, I lost the list, on which the names of the Turks I saved
were written, and the official documents of the Artillery Command I
had during the Turkish units’ delivering Erzurum from occupation on
March 12. This event may be brought to daylight by questioning of
the Turks who were kept there under pressure. I still meet people in
the streets who pronounce their sincere words of gratitude for saving
their lives. The translator Ali Bey Pepenov, scrivener at the office of
the Mayor of Erzurum, Stavrofskiy, knows them well. He himself had
written the minutes of the investigations and drawn the list.

At the end of the investigations it was found out that the Armenian
Infantry Reserve Officer Karagadayev, who was appointed to the
orders of the Artillery Regiment, was the instigator of the events.
According to the testimonies of the released Turks, Karagadayev, was
the ringleader of the pillaging, and some of the properties found were
seized by the soldiers. Karagadayev was arrested along with the
others, and kept in prison until his trial.
Late in the afternoon everything about the events was told to the
Supreme Commander at the presence of the regional inspector Glotov
and his aid Stavrovskiy. Armenians have killed several people here and
there, and set the Turkish bazaar aflame on the same day.
In those days we used to hear about the massacring of the unarmed
civilian Turks by the Armenians in and around Erzurum one by one. I
had an Armenian arrested who had massacred a Turkish person near
Tafta9 fortifications, and turned him over to the Provost Marshall
personally.
Turkish people were talking about the Turks who were taken away to
work elsewhere, most of whom did not come back. The public
administration informed the General Headquarters about these
complaints.
A day after my rescuing the Turkish people who were taken under
arrest forcibly, we, the high ranking artillery officers – Artillery
Commander, I, Director of the Artillery Command Mobilization
Department – submitted a report to General Odichelitzé requesting
permission for all the artillery personnel at the Erzurum Fortified
Region to leave Erzurum. We were of no use as a combatant unit. We
were not needed. We were unable to do anything to stop the
Armenian massacres. We never did want the atrocities committed by
the Armenians veiled by our names.
Commander-in-Chief explained us that he had received a telegram
message from the Commander of the Ottoman Army, Vehip Pasha10, where he declared that he had ordered his troops to deliver Erzincan
from occupation, and to continue their forward movement, in line
with the stipulations of the Law of War, until the establishing of an
immediate contact with the Russian forces; and that he informed him
about the atrocities committed by the Armenians on Turks living in
the region.



9 A village, today Gökçeyamaç, affiliated to the Dumlu subdistrict of Erzurum.
10 Vehip (Kaçi) was born in 1877, Khaniá, Crete. He was graduated from the Military
Academy in 1987 and from the Staff Officers’ College in 1900. He was first appointed
to Yemen, from where he was sent to the orders of Diyarbakır Division. In 1907 he
was appointed to the 4th Army Headquarters in Erzincan. In 1909, he was first
appointed to the Ministry of Defense, then to the War Academy and to the Kuleli
Military High School as the Commander of the Military Schools. He took part in the
Balkan War as Khaniá Fortified Region Commander; at the Hijaz Front as the
Commander of the 22nd Hijaz Division. He was appointed as the Governor and
Governor of Hijaz. He served at the Çanakkale Front as Southern Group Commander.

As a consequence of the forward movement of the Ottoman Army,
the Southern Caucasus Commissariat made a peace proposal to
Turkiye.
The reply they received from the Ottoman Army Command stated
that the peace proposal was highly welcomed, and that the proposal
made by the Southern Caucasus Commissariat was forwarded to the
government for solution.
Upon our request Army Commander communicated with the
President of the Commissariat Mr. Gegechkori, and the Supreme
Commander General Lebedinskiy through telegram. In the reply
received it was said that Dr. Zavriyevand Antranik were sent to
Erzurum by the Armenian National Assembly to establish order in the
city; that an ultimatum demanding the stopping of the Armenian
atrocities had been given to the Armenian National Assembly as it
was capable of meeting the request; that the final orders would be
issued after the receiving of the Turkish Government’s consideration
of the peace proposal; that we should continue staying in Erzurum
until then. Finally it was stated that: “I would like to express my
deepest gratitude to your honor and to your officers for the heroic
stance displayed. We are of the full conviction that you and your staff
shall continue to remain in your position heroically, which is especially
important at a time when Russia is threatened by the catastrophic
circumstances.”
The Army Commander issued an order pertaining to this issue. He
emphasized we should remain in our positions as sentinels; and that
he, with his all capacity would not allow any loss of officers for no
apparent reason.



He was the Commander of the 3rd Army at the Eastern Front from February 1916 to
June 1918. From June 9 1918 to September 9 1918 he served as the Eastern Armies
Group Commander. He retired from the army on October 18, 1918. He deceased on
June 13, 1940.
Harp Akademileri Komutanlığı. Türk Harp Tarihi Derslerinde Adı Geçen Komutanlar
[Commanders Whose Names are Mentioned in the Turkish History of War Courses].
İstanbul: Harp Akademileri Komutanlığı Yay., 1983, p. 315-322.

We stayed in Erzurum as a result of this order, and for the interests
of Russia. It was just then, when the Ottoman State found the peace
proposal made by the Southern Caucasus Commissariat appropriate,
and the peace talks was scheduled to start in Trabzon as of February
17, 191811.
The Army Commander in his speech declared that we were to stay in
Erzurum until the signing of the peace treaty; that following the
signing of the peace treaty all the guns and equipment were either to
be transported to Russia or left to the Turkish forces; that we were to
leave if the terms of the treaty required; that we were to leave
Erzurum after having destroyed all the guns if the treaty is would not
be signed; that the Army Commander had no intention of engaging in
a battle in the environs of Erzurum; and explained that after
observing of the first signs of a general attack to be launched by the
Turkish units, he would notify us within 7 days.
Briefly, until the finding of a definite solution for the staying of the
officers in Erzurum, a necessity of taking measures against the
possible kurdish attacks on Erzurum was born. Because, the Turkish
Government had officially informed us, during the peace talks, that
the kurds were not obeying the orders given but were acting at their
own will.
To this end, at the end of January, upon the orders of the Army
Commander, artillery guns were transferred to the logistics support
units along the Erzincan-Erzurum line to drive the kurds who started
attacking the depots to provide food back.
Several guns were deployed along the logistics support lines under the
supervision of officers. Those guns were brought back by the units that
were mainly composed of the Armenians withdrawing from Erzincan.
Towards February 10, Army Commander ordered the positioning two
guns on each of the Büyükkiremitli and Surp Nishan emplacements
over looking the Trabzonkapı. Later, more guns were positioned on the
various parts of the town. It was also evaluated that the positioning of
guns between the Karskapı and Harputkapı emplacements would be
appropriate to prevent the possible kurdish raids to come from the
direction of Palandöken12.

11 Trabzon peace talks started in March 14, 1918. Kemal ARI. Birinci Dünya Savaşı
Kronolojisi [Chronology of the First World War]. Ankara: Genelkurmay ATASE
Başkanlığı Yay., 1997, p. 336.
12 A sub-district affiliated to Erzurum.

Those guns were placed solely to retaliate the kurdish raids. Guns
were so openly positioned that they were unable to fight against any
orderly unit supported by artillery units. They would easily be
destroyed at the first two or three shots. However, it was the only
possible way to repulse the kurdish attacks successfully.
In mid-February, the breeches, telescopic sights and quadrant sights
of the guns positioned in distant places were all taken to the central
depots. Only the telescopic sights of the guns positioned near were
taken out; now it was the time for dismantling their breeches. The
same order was issued for the guns positioned in Palandöken
Mountain; but the task could not have been realized thoroughly yet.
Only the telescopic sights of the guns to be used against the kurds
were left.
The Ottoman army’s attack was not expected to start soon. It was
thought that the morale of the Ottoman units was low and that they
were not capable of making any maneuvers before the summer.
On February 12, two Russian officers, who witnessed the shooting of
10 or 12 Turks by the Armenian gangs armed to the teeth out in the
open near the train station, tried to save those people, but the
Armenians threatened the officers with weapons and pushed them
away. None of the gang members was taken under arrest in relation
to this event.
On February 13, the Army Commander declared Martial Law. He
ordered the setting up of the Court Martial, and the practicing of the
death penalty in line with the stipulations of the former law,
preceding the revolution. Colonel Morel was appointed to the
Command of the Erzurum Fortress and to the chair of the Armenian
Court; and he set off the same day. Brigadier General Gerasimov,
Commander of the Fortified Region, left with him to set up a new
base for a possible transfer of the guns. I kept my position and took
over the duty of Commander of the Fortified Region as a deputy.
The majority of Colonel Morel’s headquarters were composed of the
Russian officers. The Chief of Staff of the Regiment was Staff Captain
Shneur.
As soon as the Army Commander left, Colonel Morel put on a
different air. He declared that Erzurum would be kept in hand,
defended until the very last moment, and that he would not allow any
of the officers and men who could bear arms leave the city.

The day the Army Commander left, as we were having a meeting
with Col. Morel at his office, I told him that there were officers who
were looking forward to leave. An official present there, Sogomonian,
an Armenian, said, in the presence of everybody there, that as a
member of the Court Martial he would not let any of the Russian
officers leave; that he would personally shoot all those who would
attempt to leave Erzurum; and that reinforced police stations were
established in Köprüköy13 and Hasankale14 to arrest those who would
try to leave without the documents signed by him and bring them
before the Court Martial.
I then understood that we were caught in a tight trap from which it
was impossible to escape. It was evident that the declaration of
Martial Law and the establishing of the Court Martial were solely for
the Russian officers, not for the ferocious Armenian gangs.
Tyranny and oppression continued in the city as before. The Russian
officers were trying hard to defend the unarmed and desperate
Turks. There are lots of incidents where the officers under my
command used force to save the Turks who were arrested and
violated in the streets by the Armenians. Karayev, Laboratory
Director, opened fire on an Armenian soldier who stripped naked a
Turk out in the open in the day light.
None of the promises made for the hanging those who were
massacring the unarmed innocent people were kept. The Court
Martial established could not function. It was afraid of the threats
posed by the Armenians. Although it was promised by the Armenians,
before the Court Martial’s getting into effect, that the guilty
Armenians would be hanged none of the guilty Armenians were
punished. By the way, Armenians were the ones who strongly
advocated the putting of the Courts Martial into effect in no time.
Turks have always been saying determinedly that an Armenian would
never punish another Armenian. A Russian proverb says, “Crow,
would not scoop another crow’s eye out.” We witnessed the truth of
this proverb with our own very eyes.
Armed Armenians fled together with their families. The Reserve
Officer Karagadayev, who was in prison, was released without my
authorization. Colonel Morel answered my enquiry on Karagadayev’s
release by saying that the investigation launched proved him not guilty.


13 Sub-district affiliated to Pasinler district of Erzurum. Today, Çobandede.
14 Pasinler district of Erzurum.

None of us was invited to take place in the investigation.
Although we were the primary witnesses in the case none of us was
called in to testify. However, I ordered the taking of our testimonies
at the regiment; I assigned the case to Colonel Aleksadrov. I made a
proposal for the removal of the Reserve Officer Karagadayev from his
post and sending him back to the infantry unit to which he was
affiliated earlier.
Even the murderer Armenian whom I personally caught on the spot
in Tafta was not taken to court at all. Colonel Morel was afraid of the
uprising of the Turks in Erzurum.
Antranik came to Erzurum on February 17. Dr. Zavrief, the Vice-
Commissioner of the Regions under Occupation, was with him.
As we have never occupied ourselves with the Armenian history or
with the activities, none of us was aware of the fact that Antranik
was a Turkish subject and a ferocious murderer sentenced to capital
punishment by the Turkish Government. I learned all about those
when I met the Commander of the Ottoman Army on March 7.
Antranik was wearing a Russian brigadier general uniform. He was
carrying an order of St. Vladimir of a fourth degree, and a combatant
order of Stanislav of a second degree. He was also carrying a St.
Georgievski cross of a second degree. Russian Colonel Zinkević, the
chief of staff, came to Erzurum with him.
A day prior to Antranik’s arrival in Erzurum, Colonel Morel announced
the telegram message he received from Antranik stating that machine
guns were placed in Körpüköy to kill all the cowards fleeing Erzurum.
As soon as Antranik came to Erzurum he took over the Fortress
Command. Colonel Morel entered his command. We remained under
the command of Colonel Morel as before.
The day Antranik came, one of my officers in one of the regions
under my area of responsibility reported me that the Armenians
massacred all the unarmed innocent inhabitants of Tepeköy,
especially, regardless of their age and gender. I informed Antranik
about this massacre immediately at our introduction. In my presence,
he ordered the sending of twenty cavalrymen and catching at least
one of the murderers. I do not know what came out of it.
Colonel Torkom reappeared. Two days after Antranik’s coming
Armenian Artillery Colonel Doluhanov came to Erzurum. He first said,
he was appointed as an Artillery Inspector and he would be my
superior.

Upon my declaration of my authority as a Division Commander, my not needing any superiors, and my assertion that I
would gladly submit my resignation at once if he continued to insist;
he issued an order saying Colonel Doluhanov was appointed to
Erzurum Fortress to deal with the affairs of the artillery. He started
sending the orders and the regulations on behalf of Antranik, not in
his name.
Senior Armenian Lieutenant Canbolatyan, who was working as an
artillery battery commander in my regiment, was trying to interfere in
my affairs. When he learned about the plans made for the
transferring of the artillery guns, and about the partially broken
electric motors and projectors he said he would not allow the transfer
even of a single gun, and continued “Russian officers may or may not
stay, but the Armenians will stay no matter what the circumstances
are. They will be in need of these guns.”
It was evident that the Armenians, under the disguise of serving the
Russian interests, were actually in pursuit of taking all the command
and control into their own hands, and have all the Russian officers
execute their orders.
It gradually came to surface that they were taking steps in pursuit of
declaring free Armenian state with the help of the Russian officers
rather than working for the Russian interests. They were trying to veil
their true intentions with all their might. Otherwise, there was a
possible threat of majority, or all, of the Russian officers’ leaving at
once. The Armenians did not have any artillery officers.
The Armenians were afraid of artillery officers’ leaving their posts.
The Deputy Commander of the Caucasus Mountain Artillery Battalion
Captain Plat told me about an incident. He said that the Armenian
administrators, on learning that the Mountain Artillery units were to
be transferred to Sarıkamış from Erzurum on February 7, arrested the
Commander of the Mountain Artillery Supply Battalion on February 5
in a hurry; and released the officer upon the orders of the Army
Commander. Armenians arrested him three times afterwards, and
threatened him saying they would drench Erzurum in blood if the
Mountain Artillery would ever leave Erzurum. What he implied with
drenching Erzurum in blood, was in fact drenching it with the blood of
the Russian officers. The arrested were being released upon the
interventions of the Russian officers at the headquarters. The Army
Commander postponed the withdrawing of the Mountain Artillery.

This incident compelled me to sign reconciliation with the Deputy
Commander of the 7th Caucasus Mountain Artillery Battalion.
We agreed to help each other considering the possibility of their
coercing the Russian artillery officers physically in order to have us,
or our officers, work for the Armenian cause. This reconciliation was
evidently secret. The material power we had was consisted of the
artillery guns, machine guns, and Russian officers.
The Deputy Commander of the Artillery Battalion gathered his officers
near our houses in groups. I had already gathered everybody in the
regiment around the Artillery Command located in the Muslim district
of the town, since the formation of the regiment and the entrance of
the Russian units into Erzurum.
Following Antranik’s arrival in Erzurum, a wide spread fear of a
possible uprising of the prominent people of the town dominated
Colonel Morel’s headquarters. This fear multiplied everyday.
I received orders from Colonel Morel about three days after Antranik’s
coming to town. The orders stated that I should appoint experienced
officers at the Mecidiye15 fortifications to open artillery fire on the
Muslim district of the town to prevent an uprising during the arresting
of the possible leaders. We were ordered to leave the Muslim district
and to settle in the Armenian district of the town.
We, the Russian officers who have been living together with those
people for about two years, did not believe in the threat of an
uprising. We were laughing at the Armenian cowardice openly.
Artillery officers clearly stated that they would not open artillery fire
on the town. They asserted that they were there to fight an enemy
honorably rather than opening fire on the civilian people, women,
and children. Under the prevailing circumstances we inferred that the
Armenians would demand opening of artillery fire on the town either
out of fear or out of a certain drive, without any reason at all.
We did not leave the Muslim district. Firstly, it was physically
impossible to move out in the given period of time. Secondly, our
moving out from this part of the town would give the Armenians the
chance to commit massacres freely, as it was the case in Erzincan.


15 Mecidiye Fortification – over looking the Gürcüboğazı to the north and the Vank
Creek to the northwest – is located on the Topdağı (2042 m.) to the west of
Erzurum.

Thirdly, moving into the Armenian district would mean our falling into
the hands of the Armenians in whom we never had confidence.
The officers at the Mountain Artillery Battalion, who were not
affiliated to the Fortified Region, also refused the Armenian proposals
for moving. At last the issue was left to the Armenian volition. It is
needless to say that the leaders of a possible rebellion were arrested
without a single sign of an uprising.
Colonel Morel’s possible orders for opening artillery fire on the town
agitated the officers, and forced me to hold a meeting with the
artillery officers under my command.
We held two meetings, with a day’s interval. Aside from all the
artillery officers, two English officers, who were on a visit to Erzurum
for a few days, Colonel Morel, Staff Captain Zinkević, Doluhanov,
Torkom, Antranik, and Dr. Zavriyev were present at the first meeting.
We invited the English officers to show them the rear echelons of the
front, front headquarters, foreign military missions, the spiritual
condition of the Russian Artillery officers, the relation between the
Russian and Armenian officers, and to inform them about the
measures taken to prevent the bloody atrocities committed by the
Armenians. These officers were invited on purpose. Because, I
neither had a post office nor a telegram office under my command. I
could never be sure of my telegram messages’ arriving at their
destinations. In fact, I was absolutely sure that my telegrams were
never sent.
At the meeting, I explained the current situation and the
circumstances forcing the Russian artillery officers come to Erzurum
in detail. I minutely informed all the people present at the meeting
about my personal observations, about the reports I received from
other officers, as well as about the incidents of Armenian defiance
and savagery I had heard from other people and Army Commander
General Odichelitzé himself.
I concluded my explanations stressing a fact, as follows:
We are Russian Officers. We, the honorable Russian
officers in uniforms, did not stay in Erzurum to cover up
the plunderer Armenians’ atrocities committed on the
poor people. We stayed here to serve the Russian
interests and in subordination to our superiors. We did not stay here to serve the Armenian massacres and sheer
violence; but to serve to the Russian cause. We are not
intended to libel our names by the nations of the world.
We would like to see the ending of the disgraceful
Armenian atrocities as long as we stay here. Otherwise,
we shall be insisting on our return home as soon as
possible.

The events I talked about were proved right by the observations of
the other officers who had a say at the meeting.
In reply, Antranik stressing the Armenians’ gratefulness to Russia
claimed that they were a part of the Great Russian peoples; that they
did not want to separate from them for the time being, but to serve
Russia; that the massacres were the result of the enmity that had
been continuing for centuries between the Turks and the Armenians;
that all the defiance and savagery would be ended decisively; that
there would be no signs of a probable idea of coercing the civilians in
a short time; that he came here to put an end to such deeds; that he
if he were not to succeed he himself would leave at once. All the talks
were held with the help of translators.
When he was asked about the Russian officers who wanted to leave
Erzurum; he replied saying it would be better for the weak to leave
for the welfare of the cause, and that he would do his “best not to
keep them from leaving.”
Colonel Zinkević did his best in trying to convince all the people
present that the Russian cause keeping us here was in fact the same
true cause that brought him here; and that he fervent follower of the
cause.
At the end of the meeting, all the officers declared, prior to taking up
steps on the issue, that they would wait for another seven, or rather
ten, days to see how things would develop; and if Antranik’s promises
were met.
This meeting was held on either February 20 or 21. After the meeting
Colonel Doluhanov told me that he was extremely surprised to see
the hatred and loathsomeness in the Russian officers against the
Armenians. He voiced his surprise to the other officers as well.
Antranik issued an order saying that anybody committing murder,
may it be Armenian or Muslim, would be punished the same without
any discrimination of nationality. Bulletins and posters, in Turkish,
calling the people to open their shops and to work freely without any fear were hung all over the city. It was also declared in the bulletins
that those who would gather people to work elsewhere would be held
responsible for loss of any Turkish lives; and that those who were
accompanying those convoys would be equally held responsible as
well.

Couple of days later I was passing through one of the streets around
the town hall. Senior Lieutenant Canbolatyan, an Armenian
commander of one of the battalions under my command, was riding
with me. On seeing couple of Turks reading the bulletins, we
stopped.
Senior Lieutenant Canbolatyan told the people gathered there in
Turkish that the Command Headquarters had taken all the measures
to prevent any Armenian soldier from committing any crimes against
the civilian Turkish people; and that no harm would be done unless
the townspeople rose.
In reply to his words they said, the past two years had not witnessed
any rebellion, or any attempt for rebellion; but complained about the
treating of the helpless people with disdain.
I asked Senior Lieutenant Canbolatyan to explain them that I, as the
Commander of the Russian Artillery, and all the Russian officers were,
are, and would be the defenders of the unarmed civilian Turkish
people; that we had taken all the measures possible in order to stop
all the violence; and that we would immediately voice our requests to
our superiors once more.
Most of the people there approved my words saying that they were
already aware of the truth of my words. Meanwhile, three people in
the crowd declared that I had saved their lives on February 7. Senior
Lieutenant Canbolatyan was taking part in the activities of the
Armenian Committee.
In the second general meeting of the officers, only Dr. Zavriyev was
present as a foreigner. We declared that the 2nd Fortress Artillery
Regiment in Erzurum was not an Armenian regiment as the
Armenians were eager to see it; that only its troops were Armenians;
that none of us had signed any contract to serve the Armenians, nor
that we had any idea to serve them as mercenaries; that we did not
sign any document to serve in the Armenian units; that we did not
sign any contract to do so; that it was high time that the government
put forward decisively if the regiment was Russian or Armenian; that
if it were Russian we needed Russian soldiers; that if it were Armenian the Russian officers who wanted leave should be set free to serve in
another Russian Corps; that those who did not want to serve at the
Caucasian Front should be set free disregarding the obstacles put by
the so-called martial law.

In case of Southern Caucasus’s separating from Russia, the rumors
about which had already reached us, and it was highly expected
then, we would leave at once. In such a case we would be aliens in
the Southern Caucasus.
Thus, under the light of the prevailing instructions and orders it was
understood that everybody held the right to apply his superior for
resignation or for his transfer to Russian Corps. I declared that I
would not delay any applications that would reach me, and that I
would immediately sent all the applications to the authorities.
At this meeting, Senior Lieutenant Yermolov from the 7th Caucasus
Mountain Artillery Battalion, told the officers that he had written a
personal application for his dismissal as he did not want to serve in
an Armenian Battalion; that they, at first, tried to convince him, and
upon his decisively declaring that he would not stay whatsoever,
Colonel Morel issued a written order stating that Senior Lieutenant
Yermolov was an “alien,” in other words he was a useless and
dangerous person as an officer, who was dismissed from his post to
be sent to Front Headquarters; and that he was ordered to leave
Erzurum within 24 hours at the latest.
Such was the attitude towards an officer who was holding several
decorations of war. His rightful refusal of a post in an Armenian unit
compelled Colonel Morel to confess, in his anger, his extreme loyalty
towards the Armenians openly; and as a result he was libeled.
Dr. Zavriyev tried to persuade the Russian officers to the following
terms: by staying in Erzurum the Russian officers were serving the
Russian army and serving the Russian interests only, not the
Armenian cause; that the Armenian people were strictly bound to
Russia; that they would continue their existence with the help of
Russia in the future; Armenians were not in pursuit of breaking up
with Russia whatsoever; Armenian people were a part of the Russian
people; that the prevailing circumstanced necessitated our staying in
Erzurum for the economic and political interests of Russia until the
signing of a treaty. He said, being Russian citizens, we did not have
the right to say, “You the Armenians and the Turks do what you have
to do! Are you butchering each other? Go ahead and do it! Damn you!

It is your internal affair. We, the Russians, have nothing to do here!”
morally.
Finally he said, “If we, as human beings, really want to put an end to
massacring of the civilians determinedly; then we, with all our
characteristics as human beings, should continue to stay in Erzurum
to prevent the Armenian mobs from massacring the Muslims in
Erzurum.”
Doctor Zavriyev’s words did not have any repercussions at all. After
the meeting he told me that there were no signs of hope and that all
the officers would leave soon.
I found an opportunity to read several documents 10 days after the
Turkish forces’ delivering Erzurum from occupation. In those
documents I saw that our suspicions on the declaration of the
Armenian autonomy with the help of the Russian officers were not
groundless at all. In those documents Dr. Zavriyev was explicitly
talking about the intentions of establishing an autonomous Armenia.
The document was bearing a much earlier date than Zavriyev coming
to Erzurum.
Dr. Zavriyev was not mistaking in his evaluations of the morale state
of the Russian officers. Our intentions of leaving could be seen on our
faces. It was evident what the Armenians asked for, and why they
needed the Russian officers.
We were all soldiers, and we did not have any intentions in dealing
with politics. We could never have considered the Armenian partisan
engagements as our own.
Antranik’s words proved to be nothing more than vain promises.
People did not believe in them. The market places were closed.
Everybody was in fear. There was nobody in the streets of the Muslim
districts of the town. Only one or two shops near the town hall were
open. Only a few Turks would come together during the day light. No
Armenian was sentenced to death. Armenian plan worked as follows:
“There are no criminals. Show us the murderer. So we can send him
for trial immediately. How can we punish a person without knowing
who the criminal is?”
In spite of the Armenians’ claims, the Armenians were told
unceasingly that the Russian officers had shown them lots of criminal
Armenians who were released without being punished; that finding of
the Armenians sought by the police was not the Russian officers’ duty; that if the Armenians were really in pursuit of finding the criminals
they had the means of finding them in no time.

The Armenian hypocrisy was getting more and more repulsive.
Violence directed at the civilian people was not ceasing; they were
being committed in secret. The Armenians had shifted their activities
to the near by villages which could not be seen by us. The Turks
living in the villages near the city started to disappear. I do not know
how and where they disappeared. The people living in the distant
villages started to defend themselves with firearms.
In the city people were being arrested under the pretext of curbing a
possible uprising. I inquired Colonel Morel about the extent of the
security of the lives of the arrested. I implied, whether the arrested
people would be slaughtered like sheep in an organized manner as it
was the case in Erzincan. He replied saying that the arrested leaders
of a probable Turkish uprising would be sent to the rear echelons of
the front, to Tbilisi, in secured convoys; and that some of them would
be kept in Erzurum to be used as hostages for a possible uprising.
Reports pertaining to illegal activities of the Armenian logistics units
started to arrive one after another. Fat required by the regiment
personnel was being refused at the point of transfers. If any demand
for fat was voiced by the electricians’ battalion, their needs were met
in no time, for its non-commissioned officer had once close contacts
with Antranik. The Armenian official in charge of the depot did not
give the amount of sugar required by the regiment by claiming that
Antranik had taken the distribution of sugar in his own hands. This
Armenian official refused to give a written document stating the case.
Russian officers coming to the city from the front, following the
logistics supply lines, were complaining about the lack of food and a
warm place to lodge; but they said, the Armenian officers always
found plenty of food to eat and a warm place to lodge on their way
back.
Army Headquarters allocated two wagons to the artillery officers in
the middle of February. Officers sent some of their belongings and
their families to the rear echelons of the front. Three more wagons
were asked for the transfers of the remaining families and
belongings. Army Headquarters had approved the allocation of those
wagons before its departure from Erzurum.

Following the departure of the Headquarters from Erzurum, the
allocation of those wagons was delayed. At last, Colonel Zinkević
wrote a personal petition for the allocation of the wagons.
Upon receiving of this document, an Armenian official, or an officer,
who was responsible for the allocation of the wagons, said that the
allocation of the wagons would not be possible before two days. He
later promised to tell him when the wagons would be allocated. In
fact, the Armenian deserters were occupying the first place in the
allocations.
We were afraid to send our families and our belongings with convoys
without our personal protection, or of Russian protection. Because,
the logistics support lines behind the rear echelons of the front were
full of well-armed Armenian deserters and fugitives. Those places
were not secure at all. Because the Armenians who deserted the
battlegrounds, and ran away from the real soldiers cowardly and
disgracefully, did not hesitate in displaying their unyielding courage
and extreme devotion while they were attacking the lonely poor
people whom they met on the roads – may them be elderly, women
or children – in groups.
Reinforcement of the units from the rear echelons was extremely
inadequate. The morale of the infantry troops was really low. None of
the superior officers, or the others in the lower ranks, was obeying
their commanders. Before Antranik’s coming, the units used to refuse
taking their positions in the emplacements. They started going to the
fronts recently; but they are fleeing the emplacements in a
disgraceful manner. Antranik himself forced them to go back to their
positions by means of sword and fist. The units where the Russian
officers were kept coercively had all turned into ignoble filthy gangs.
I am not sure, but, Antranik might have been someone successful in
military matters. The incongruities and the nonsense in his orders,
which I used to receive through Colonel Doluhanov, pertaining
Artillery units used to take me by surprise frequently.
It was clearly observed that, considering the technical aspects of the
issue, disregarding the necessity of the well trained and experienced
personnel, qualified low ranking officers, and well trained and strong
infantry units; the future hope of the Armenian units led by Antranik
resided in the Russian guns, and I the Russian artillery officers.
Their aim was evident: to form a cover during their escape. In fact it
happened to be so.

Peace talks that were to start in Trabzon were being delayed every
day. It was previously scheduled to start on February 17, then it was
delayed to February 20, and then to February 25. I was receiving the
information through either by Erzurum Detachment Headquarters or
by the Fortress Headquarters. I was not able to correspond via
telegram. Those two headquarters were situated on the either sides
of the town. The telephone lines of the Fortress Headquarters hardly
ever functioned properly. Sometimes, when it worked, it was
impossible to communicate through the telephone lines as nothing
was heard properly. Therefore, I was compelled to go to the Fortress
Headquarters twice a day.
Under the light of the information I received from Colonel Morel and
from his headquarters I understood that we were not fighting with
the regular Turkish Army at the front; but with the kurdish gangs,
and rebellious groups among which were well trained soldiers who
remained in the villages in the region after the withdrawal of the
Turkish Army from Erzurum in 1916.
It was thought that those kurdish gangs were set up, and trained by
several Turkish officers and military personnel in order to enable the
local people, among whom were soldiers, fight back in their own
self-defense.
It was believed that the attackers had two Russian Mountain Artillery
guns that were left by the Armenian units as they were retreating
from Erzincan. The reconnaissance reports suggested that the kurds
would attack from the direction of Famski, Erzincan, and Oltu16. Their
launching an attack from the rear echelons of the front, from the
direction of Kars through Palandöken was also possible. I do not
know why; but, Colonel Morel was expecting an attack from the
direction of Oltu only.
For me, the reconnaissance activities were being carried out
desultorily by the Armenians. The cavalry units were in pursuit of
massacres, pillaging, and stealing the live stocks of the villagers
rather than performing reconnaissance activities in the villages. Their
reconnaissance reports were frequently erroneous.
Whenever a reconnaissance detachment reported a force of 2.000, it
was always found out to be a force of 200 men only.


16 District affiliated to Erzurum.

And whenever it was reported that a reconnaissance detachment of
300-400 men had to perform a breakthrough on the surrounding
enemy force, overwhelming their number, it was soon understood
that the detachment’s casualties were one dead and one wounded
only.
One day, one of the Armenian officers reported to me on the phone
that a detachment of 400 men had launched an attack on the troops
that were responsible for keeping the artillery guns. It was
understood later that they saw two unarmed men coming from the
village across, who later had left.
During the period passed between the fleeing of the Armenians from
Erzincan and the delivering of Erzurum by the Turkish forces, the
reconnaissance units were able to capture only one cavalryman. I did
not see him personally. It is highly probable that this poor man’s feet
were either frozen or he was too weak to walk alone without help.
After the second meeting I received several petitions form the
officers requesting their dismissals and transfers to Russian Corps, to
the orders of other commanders, to the units where there were
troops from other nationalities.
I reported to Colonel Morel that leaving of it was highly probable that
most of the Russian officers, may be all of them, would leave
Erzurum. He went red and said that he would not allow it happen
even if it were a decree issued by the Court Martial. I told him that
my officers still in possession of the guns; that violence would be
retaliated by guns; that it would be best to leave relying on the
decree issued by the government as it was legal right of every single
individual.
I explained Colonel Morel that none of the officers really wanted to
leave; that every officer wanted leave just to make use of their legal
rights; that there would be no difference between those who had left
their positions earlier and us, preferring to continue our legal duties.
It was such a complicated situation that conscience and honor of
duty were not permitting us to stay here.
Colonel Morel asserted that there was no legal arrangement made for
leaving; that he would give the same employment report he had
given to Senior Lieutenant Yermolov to anyone who would attempt to
leave.

I told Colonel Doluhanov that there were lots of willing officers in
Tbilisi and in Batum17, and said it was no good in trying to keep those
who were eager to leave. Colonel Morel said that he had requested
sending of 60 English artillery officers to his command and that he
had their word.
I heard that they arrested and forced a Russian, possibly a Polish,
citizen, who was working at the Erzurum train station as a chief for a
living, as he wanted to leave his position no matter how much they
paid, while all this talk was proceeding.
I ordered the battalion commanders to gather all the officers around
the artillery headquarters, close to them, in order to convey the
orders easily and to keep them under a certain organization in case
of an attack that might come up.
Before his leaving Erzurum, I asked from Senior Lieutenant Yermolov
to see General Vichenskiy, the Chief-of-Staff of the Army, in Sarıkamış
and to inform him about the conditions we were living in, and do his
best to save us from the miserable position we had fallen into among
the Armenians. I told him to inform General Gerasimov, the Artillery
Commander, likewise. Yermolov left Erzurum on February 25.
I believe it was on February 24, when a Turkish airplane conducted a
reconnaissance flight over Erzurum, which caused me to deduce the
idea that the orderly Turkish troops were either in Erzincan or even in
Mamahatun18.
In those days, Colonel Morel was saying that he had received a
“proclamation” from the Turkish forces requesting the evacuation of
Erzurum. After the delivering of Erzurum I had the chance of meeting
Kâzım Bey19, the Commander of the Turkish Corps.


17 Georgian city on the cost of the Black Sea.
18 District affiliated to Erzincan. Today, Tercan.
19 Kâzım (KARABEKİR) was born in 1882, Istanbul. He graduated from the Military
College in 1902 and from the War Academy on 1905. He was appointed as the Chief-
of-Staff of the 1st Army and the 6th Army; Commander of the 8th, 2nd, 1st Caucasus,
14th, 15th Divisions; and the Commander of the Eastern Front on June 14, 1920
respectively. He was appointed as the 1st Army Inspector on October 21, 1923; but as
he was a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), he was given a
leave by a special decree dated December 19, 1923. He was elected as the Deputy
of Edirne in the 1st and 2nd term; and as the Deputy of İstanbul in the 5th and 8th
terms of the TGNA. He served as the president of the TGNA from 1946 to 1948. He
died on January 25, 1948. He gave numerous seminars and conferences, published
books on military, political, and historical issues, 44 of which were published.

At the meeting he said that the note was not a “proclamation” but a real letter he, I
mean the Commander of the Turkish Corps, personally had written.
Even if we consented to agree the Turkish requests, and regard the
letter as an anonymous or illegal letter, Colonel Morel did not have
the right to hide the signature of the commander of the regular
Turkish Forces from us and declare the letter as a “proclamation.”
The information we obtained from the Fortress Headquarters on
February 24-25 there was nothing to be worried about at the front.
We heard that a detachment sent to the environs of Tekederesi20 had
surrounded a kurdish gang. It was also said that the troops coming
from Erzurum had allegedly repulsed the enemy troops by several
vests (1 vest = 1.06 km.) in the outskirts of Ilıca.
On February 26, it came to the daylight that the Armenian
detachment sent to Tekederesi from Erzurum was surrounded, that
they were thoroughly dissolved, that the survivors fled disgracefully,
and that the Ilıca detachment retreated running.
Colonel Morel, in his verbal order told me to open fire on the
attacking Turkish troops; however, there were nobody attacking
nowhere. There were panic driven Armenian mobs retreating on the
Harput highway in a disorderly manner. There were groups retreating
calmly along the Trabzon highway just like a convoy in a state of
mobilization without stopping or spreading.
In the afternoon, it was understood that the enemy forces were
around the Gez village21 that was located at a distance of 6 vests to
the city. According to my perceptions there were units of 1.500 men.
The number was unimportant, but they did not look like untrained
kurdish bandits. It was clearly observed that they were well trained
troops conducted and steered in a highly disciplined manner. The
existence of several straggling cavalrymen next to them brought to
mind that they were roughly organized kurdish detachments rather
than orderly troops.


Turkish General Staff, Directorate of ATASE. Türk İstiklal Harbine Katılan Tümen ve
Daha Üst Kademedeki Komutanların Biyografileri [The Biographies of the Division
Commanders and Higher Ranking Generals Who Took Part in the Turkish War of
Independence]. Ankara: TGS Printing House, 1989. pp. 177-179.
20 A village affiliated to Erzurum.
21 A village affiliated to Erzurum.

The state and the condition of the retreating troops were very sad
and hopeless. They were either spreading along the road as if they
were small liquid chains or coming together every now and then. It
was evident that fear and anxiety prevailed them. Antranik took the
lead of this chain that was gradually melting away. He managed to
straighten the retreating people up; but soon they started dissolving
again in exhaustion.
Our artillery fire continued until the evening. It ceased after the fall of
dark. With the launching of defense measures against the kurds, all
the officers were compelled to act gracefully as the circumstances of
war demanded from honorable officers. Everybody was clearly aware
of the fact that retreating at such a point would serve to libeling us
eternally with cowardice and treachery. We had to resist the attacks
at first.
Today, I learned what the Armenian forces understood from
allocation of the artillery units, and from making use of them
during the battle. My guns positioned in the Büyükkiremitli fortified
emplacements were a vest ahead of the infantry units that were
stuck in the direction of Harputkapı, and refused to go any further to
provide cover for the guns.
Moreover, on the same day, the retreating units’ not forgetting to
take some moveable properties, steal the live stocks of the villagers,
and kill the unarmed and innocent people whom they met on their
way attracted my attention, despite the state of fear and panic they
were living through since their departure from Tekederesi.
It seemed that the enemy’s advance towards the city was unexpected.
No orders were issued for battle and organization. It might have been
issued, but I assure you that I did not receive such an order. I once
heard that a scheme was devised for the infantry troops’ capturing
the main corridors of the city upon the giving of signs of alarm. I did
not receive this order either.
I was to cover the fortified region by artillery fire and to prevent the
kurdish forces from penetrating in. In the field, there were the
infantry forces and the mountain artillery guns that were not under
my command.
That day, and the day before, the police was not only gathering the
men who were capable of working but the old and disabled Turkish
men as well. When they were asked they used to say they were
“gathering workers to clean the snow covered rail tracks.”

In the evening I learned that one of the Armenian patrols under the
command of an Armenian cadet tried to break into my house under
the pretext of conducting a search, during the day, despite my name
written on it. According to what he said he did not know who was
living in the house. Upon decisive and strong resistance of my landlord
this cadet, this insolent being, uttered the most despicable words to
my spouse, and left without showing any signs of courage for taking
my landlord, who was an elderly Turkish person, and the kurdish
people who were in my service. The testimony of this cadet revealed
that this absurdity stemmed from the orders Antranik issued.
On learning this, I had a door opened between my apartment and my
landlady’s apartment so that the elderly landlady could take shelter in
my apartment in case the Armenians come again to take the
household away. She complied and had a door opened to my
apartment through one of her neighbors.
That night they called me to Antranik’s office for a military council
meeting. I went there together with Captain Joltkević, the Chief of
Mobilization Department and Technical Services. I was taking him to
all the meeting I was attending in those days so as to render him as
a witness to talks held.
When we arrived at the meeting they had already started. It was
evident that they need not my putting forward my ideas. There were,
Antranik, Dr. Zavriyev, Colonel Zinkević, Colonel Morel, Colonel
Doluhanov, and several others at the meeting. Colonel Zinkević read
the telegram message by the Commander-in-Chief Odichelitzé to me.
In his message, General Odichelitzé was mentioning about Vehip
Pasha’s, the Commander of the Turkish Army, coded telegram
message, where he informed him about his having given orders to his
troops for launching an attack on Erzurum and deliver it. Consequently,
General Odichelitzé ordered the destruction of all the guns in the
reinforced emplacements and withdrawing of all the units.
Antranik had given me a written order on the destruction of those
guns. General Odichelitzé was keeping his promise on the
destruction of the guns, but his orders arrived late. It was
impossible to destroy some of the guns. The Turkish forces had
already intercepted our lines. But, we still had more than half of our
guns to destroy. On the other hand, the sights and breech
mechanisms removed were scattered all around, we could destroy
them all but we needed two or three days to do it.

Antranik was yelling, swearing, and cursing at some people in Armenian.
Dr. Zavriyev was both trying to calm him down, and telling us that
Antranik was cursing and swearing at the Armenian administrators and
statesmen who never wanted to fight at the fronts, and who abandoned
the Armenian people and Armenia by sending a force of 3.000-4.000
men until then, although they had all the chance on their side earlier.
At last, Antranik explained his decision: to resist in Erzurum for
another two days; and to evacuate the city to a maximum extent
possible in this limited time. Antranik, disregarding our presence in
the room, shamelessly, took his clothes of washed his face and
hands, wore his pyjamas, and went to bed as if we were not there.
I informed Dr. Zavriyev about the arsonings and fires breaking out in
the city. I told him about an incident I witnessed on my to meet him
that day; there was a dozen shops burning to ashes in the town and
no one was even attempting to extinguish the fire in the market
place. He said necessary orders for extinguishing the fires in the city
were already given.
I inquired Dr. Zavriyev about the gathering of the Muslim people and
sending them to other places to work by the police. He said, they
were gathered for the cleaning of the railroads. Upon my inquiring
him, in great bewilderment, especially on the gathering of the elderly
and the disabled, who were not capable of working at all, in the
middle of the night and sending them to work right away; he said he
did not know anything, but that he would investigate the issue.
I believe the words I had spent to Dr. Zavriyev about the coercion
exerted on the civilian people previously created an enough sense of
grief and anxiety for not turning a blind eye one the oppression and
massacres carried out. He, as a member of the government, was
trying to do his best in persuading the Armenians establish flawless
relations with the Muslim population within the framework of the laws
prevailing.
I used to observe such intentions among the Armenian intellectuals in
Erzurum as well. I have no chance of knowing what they really have
in their minds; but their words sounded as if they were full-heartedly
standing against the most reprehensible acts and massacres.
Dr. Zavriyev ought to have known the instincts of the other
Armenians better than I did, but he did not.

After Antranik’s placing himself in his bed comfortably, we passed on
the other room. We dismissed following the talks we held about the
implementation of the tasks Antranik had assigned us.
Resisting for another two days did not seem implausible at all. On the
other hand it was possible to resist not just for two days but forty-two
days as we had well-constructed wired trenches, strong city walls, a
two times bigger defense force that was not only capable of resisting
the attacking kurds but to the orderly units of a well organized army.
We were absolutely right in repelling the kurdish attacks; because,
the Turkish government had already warned us expressing that the
kurds were not complying with the orders issued, and that they were
unable to keep them from fighting. In other words, the burden of
defending ourselves from the kurdish raids was placed on our
shoulders.
On my way back, I saw that the fires, I mentioned above, were being
taken under control and even put out. The city, when observed from
outside, looked quite calm. It was quite evident that there were no
signs, or danger, of breaking out of massacres.
On returning to the artillery headquarters I gave my orders for
declaring the guns hors de combat. They could have been destroyed
within two days at the most. I was receiving reports pertaining to the
withdrawal of the infantry units in the dark from my officers. I hardly
found an opportunity to get in touch with Colonel Morel, and I
conveyed all the reports to him. He told me that all the counter
measures were taken, that reserve troops and reinforcements were
sent to the city, and that there was no reason to feel anxious about.
I went home and slept at about 1 o’clock. At about 2 or 3 o’clock in
the morning, I heard several distant rifle shots coming from the city.
I heard the sounds of rammed doors in the city. I heard the same
foot steps of the touring Armenian detachments who were gathering
the townsmen in the daylight, as well as the voices of people. There
were no signs of coming help. Having observed the arresting of the
townspeople, I suddenly developed a feeling that the Armenians were
getting ready for massacres feverishly and fervently.
After having evaluated the situation I came to the conclusion that:
first, while were fighting with the Turks honorably and defending
Erzurum, those blood-thirsty and coward Armenian “freedom fighters”
were deceiving us with what they did from behind. They started to
carry out full-scale massacres on the unarmed elderly, women, and children without worrying about libeling their own names before the
world public opinion, let alone libeling the reputation of the Russian
officers. Those who did not know enough about the developments
might have thought that the Russian officers were helping the
Armenians in realizing their activities. Secondly, the attackers could
have been the orderly Turkish forces. If they were not there yet, they
would have come the other day at dawn, or later in the day. Fighting
against the orderly Turkish units did not have any place neither in the
peace plans of our Army Command nor in our given tasks.

Accordingly, I decided to visit Colonel Morel at dawn and ask him to
stop the Armenians from committing massacres any more; if he was
not capable of doing this, we would force them to comply by turning
our guns over the Armenians and stopping them by means of threat,
or by means of opening fire if the circumstances required. After
ceasing of the battle, we would send the members of the parliament
to hold talks with the Turkish forces for our evacuating the city within
two days at the latest without shedding blood.
A plan had to be devised for the securing of full protection of the
Muslim population while the Armenians were retreating. For example,
a detachment might have been formed by the Russian officers,
Russian officials (although very few in number), and Russian soldiers
who remained in Erzurum. And to set up a Turkish detachment to
help the Russians or give them under the Russian command.
I went to see Colonel Morel, together with Captain Joltkević, at dawn.
On our way, I learned from the Reserve Officer Bagratunyanets that
he received orders for withdrawal; that he wanted to destroy the
arsenal, but that Colonel Morel wanted me to deal with the problems
pertaining to the arsenal. I was amazed to hear such an order. This
arsenal was not affiliated to me at all; but it was under the
responsibility Colonel Doluhanov.
I explained Reserve Officer Bagratunyanets that destroying of the
arsenal would not yield to a plausible end; that it would be an
unnecessary show of power; that we, the Russian artillery officers,
were betrayed as we were not informed of the orders of withdrawal;
that we all lived near the arsenal; that we would die immediately in
case of an explosion. My reasoning proved to be plausible, and the
arsenal was saved.
On reaching Colonel Morel’s headquarters we witnessed the fleeing of
people. The American Consulate, where some Armenian offices were
found, across the headquarters, was burning in flames. Everything was in flames. Colonel Morel and Colonel Torkom were on their horses.
They were prepared to leave. It was 7 o’clock in the morning.

When I inquired them about the situation, Colonel Morel said, they
received orders for withdrawal at 5 o’clock in the morning, and that
he did not understand how the orders did not reach me until then.
I was facing the very thing I was afraid of. They were running away
under the cover of Russian officers and artillery. While the Russian
officers were loading and firing the guns with their own hands to stop
the enemy, the Armenian “warriors” were massacring the people
behind them, and were robbing the people off their properties
without fear. If I had not come, none of us would have learned about
the orders issued for withdrawal.
They used to inform us about the orders, may them be trivial or not,
by sending at least an officer. But now they did not do it.
I first thought of going directly to the fortified emplacement at
Mecidiye to express my gratitude to the Armenian heroes(!), who
were running away towards Kars wrapped tightly in their overcoats
and flak jackets, with artillery fire; for having deceived us; for not
giving us enough time to destroy our guns but committing most
despicable massacres behind us; for betraying and libeling an
honorable senior officer; and for betraying other officers under my
command.
Thinking of the innocent people among them I abandoned my idea.
There still were lots of chaste Russians, people of other nations,
women and children in the city.
We set out to return to the artillery headquarters right away. The
streets were full of running, panic stricken desperate mobs of
Armenian forces. I could not see any Armenian officers around. The
roads were covered with belongings, overcoats, military equipments,
and food thrown away by the fleeing Armenians.
It was almost impossible to make our way out of the town as the
roads were crowded with streams of people and wagons. We tried to
pass through other roads. We changed our direction, and met with
cries of the people, and noise of fusillades.
I could not see what was happening in the streets. My sight was
blocked by a corner on the street. Only thing we were able to see
was the blood that was covering the snow in the street. I ordered
going back to where we returned from, thinking that there was a street battle going on. When we returned to the crossroads, we left our car
and started to walk the remaining distance.

Meanwhile an Armenian, the chief of police of the town, made his
way out of the street where the noise of fusillades and cries of people
came from. I realized that he was there also. At last my perceptions
proved to be right.
On returning the headquarters I ordered the batteries to withdraw
together with the infantry forces. I also ordered the allocation of
means of transport for the artillery officers. Soon it was understood
that all the means of transport of the artillery headquarters had been
stolen as a result of the thoughtlessness of the commander of the
Service Company during the night. The regiment’s means of
transport, which were attended by an officer during the night, were
being taken away before our eyes. The stablemen who came out of
the courtyard gate started to run away galloping in the direction of
Kars without even bothering themselves coming to the artillery
headquarters.
The Armenian soldiers, who were armed to teeth, were trying to get
on the covered wagons in maddening fear. Some of them were
unleashing the horses from the wagons, riding on them in pairs, and
were fleeing the city bellowing.
They even tried to take my wagon, which I had left on the road, by
using force. But, on my driver’s resisting them, they wounded one of
my horses, but still could not take the wagon.
We were able to save only two or three of the fifty wagons. Only few
officers were able to make use of them. They loaded their belongings
hastily and drove away.
There remained two wagons and two phaetons. We could have left
the city by making use of them; but as the panic stricken, fleeing
Armenians were shooting desultorily in the streets they deserted. We
decided to stay in our houses involuntarily. Turks were guaranteeing
to protect us, and our families, from the terror of the kurds.
It was understood later that if we were to leave neglecting the
fusillade of the Armenians in the town, we would never have
succeeded it. We had lost our contact with the Karskapı. Senior
Lieutenant Mitrofonov, who tried leaving the city, was compelled to
return

After a while we heard that the Turkish forces entered the city. We
thus learned that we were not fighting against the kurds only but
against the orderly Turkish troops.
Almost all of the courageous Armenian infantry(!) had deserted the
battlefield hastily under the cover of the night, and set out towards
Kars. They were running away as if they were being chased by a
storm. Even a storm could not have cleansed Erzurum from the
Armenians as they purged the city off their existence by themselves.
The reality of finding hardly any dead or wounded Armenians in the
defense lines and in the city itself denoted to their understanding of
upright defense and how they resisted for a long time. Moreover, the
fact that the Russian officers were the only prisoners of war, could
not have testified any worse for the immense courage and dignity of
the Armenians.
Upon learning the entrance of the Turkish forces into the city, I went
out, together with my aide-de-camps, to meet and inform them about
our presence in the town. We then learned that a teary was signed
between Turkiye and Russia.
During the following days, on my way to the headquarters and on my
way back home, lots of Turkish citizens in the streets were trying to
embrace me, kiss my hands, and do whatever they could to show
their gratitude.
Being aware of the fact that – if it was not for the Russian officers in
Erzurum – the Turkish forces might not have been able to find any
living Turkish person in the city, they were showing he same due
respect towards the other Russian officers as well.
Now I am most grateful to God for not letting me leave the city with
the Armenians – about whom the ancient Roman historian Petroni
declared “The Armenians are certainly human, but at home they go
all on fours;” and again about whom the Russian poet Lermontov
justly said “Thou art a slave, thou art a coward, and thou art an
Armenian!” – after witnessing what they did in Erzurum before their
leave, and learning the number of the unarmed elderly people,
women, and children whom they massacred.
Lt.Col. Tverdohlebov
April 16/29, 1918
Erzurum