Message #466

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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.