I WITNESSED and LIVED THROUGH

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.