The Battle of Ardahan (; ,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

: Արդահանի ճակատամարտ) was fought between 25 December 1914 and 18 January 1915 and was an Ottoman military operation commanded by German Lt. Col. Stange to capture the city of

Ardahan Ardahan ( ka, არტაანი, tr; ; Russian: Ардаган) is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District.Sarikamish–

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

line, supporting the

Battle of Sarikamish The Battle of Sarikamish was an engagement between the Russian Empire, Russian and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires during World War I. It took place from December 22, 1914, to January 17, 1915, as part of the Caucasus campaign. The battle resul ...

. By 3 January 1915, Vorontsov-Dashkov achieved a decisive victory over the Ottoman forces at Ardahan.

Background

Ardahan Ardahan ( ka, არტაანი, tr; ; Russian: Ардаган) is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District.Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

identity in a bid to ignite a Christian uprising against the Muslim Turks. However, fearing reprisals against Armenian civilians, not all Armenians joined the Russian war effort. As the situation quickly escalated,

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

sought to outflank the Russian forces to seize

Sarıkamış Sarıkamış or Sarikamish (, ) is a town in Kars Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Sarıkamış District.Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

Batum Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the second-largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest, north of the border ...

and Ardahan. Enver planned to deploy the

X Corps 10th Corps, Tenth Corps, or X Corps may refer to: France * 10th Army Corps (France) * X Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * X Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army * ...

north to Ardahan, while the

IX Corps 9 Corps, 9th Corps, Ninth Corps, or IX Corps may refer to: France * 9th Army Corps (France) * IX Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * IX Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German ...

proceeded to Sarıkamış. On the day of battle, 22 December, a terrible snowstorm struck. The

Ottoman Third Army The Third Army was originally established in Skopje and later defended the northeastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Its initial headquarters was at Salonica, where it formed the core of the military forces that supported the Young Turk Rev ...

lacked proper supplies for these conditions, and incurring heavy losses retreated under Russian fire. The operation was part of what the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

viewed the Caucasus front. It was a secondary to the Eastern front. Russia had taken the fortress of

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

from the Turks during the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

in 1877 and feared a campaign into the Caucasus, aimed at retaking Kars and the port of

. Ottoman generalship and organization were negligible compared to the Allies. Enver hoped a success would facilitate opening the route to

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

and beyond, with a revolt of

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Muslims; another strategic goal was to cut Russian access to hydrocarbon resources around the

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. This long-term goal made Britain wary; the

Anglo-Persian Oil Company The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC; ) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling numbe ...

was in the proposed path. On 30 October 1914, the 3rd Army headquarters was informed by High Command in Istanbul about an exchange of fire during the

pursuit of Goeben and Breslau The pursuit of ''Goeben'' and ''Breslau'' was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the World War I, First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German ''Medite ...

in the

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. High Command expected the Russian Army to cross the Ottoman border at any time. The Bergmann Offensive (2 November 1914 – 16 November 1914) ended with the defeat of Russian troops. The Russian success was along the southern shoulders of the offense where Armenian volunteers visible (effective) and taken Karaköse and Doğubeyazıt. Hasan İzzet Pasha managed to stabilize the front by letting the Russians 25 kilometers inside the Ottoman Empire along the

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

- Sarikamish axis.

Prelude

Hostility against Ottoman Armenian soldiers was nearing a breaking point in the Ottoman ranks. Turks blamed Armenians for defecting and supplying Russians with intelligence on Ottoman positions. Actively recruited by Armenian volunteer forces fighting alongside the Russians, and regarded with suspicion among Ottoman forces, there were reports that in each battalion at least three to five Armenians were shot each day. The "Stange Bey Detachment" left Istanbul on the battleship Yavuz. Two battalions under the command of Christian August Stange disembarked in

Rize Rize (; ; ; ka, რიზე}; ) is a coastal city in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Rize Province and Rize District.Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

volunteers and materially assisted by the rebellious

Adjarians The Adjarians ( ka, აჭარლები, tr), also known as Muslim Georgians, are an ethnographic group of Georgians indigenous to Adjara in southwestern Georgia. Adjarian settlements are also found in the Georgian provinces of Guria, Kv ...

of the country. Behaeddin Shakir and the ''

Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa The Special Organization (, abbreviated TM) was an intelligence, paramilitary, and secret police organization in the Ottoman Empire known for its key role in the commission of the Armenian genocide. Originally organized under the Ministry of War ...

'' (the predecessor of the

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of Turkey), were given the task to raise volunteers among the population in the region. It had been the original intention that this army should strike at Batum when it was in sufficient force by additions from oversea, but as the result of Russian resistance on land, and especially of various actions between the Ottoman and Russian Fleets, which ended in the latter gaining the control of the Black Sea, the idea was rendered impracticable and was abandoned. Enver Pasha developed his plans for

. The Stange Bey unit and its supports were fitted to his plan as a secondary force. They were to cut the support for Russian forces at Sarikamish-Kars. The Stange Bey Detachment conduct highly visible operations to distract and pin Russian units. In his plan, Stange Bey operated in the Chorok region and seized the road.

Battle

On 15 December 1914, Stange Bey occupied Ardanuch. On 27 December 1914, after a desperate Russian resistance lasting seventeen days, Stange Bey's Army took

Ardahan Ardahan ( ka, არტაანი, tr; ; Russian: Ардаган) is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District.Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

, which if it succeeded would cut off the retreat of the Russians west of it, that is, at Sarikamish, from Kars. The Russian Viceroy and his military advisers had grasped the situation. The Stange Bay made that Russians informed very dearly for every foot of their advance. The Russian diversion to Stange Bay unit meant to be a support element to operations to capture Sarikamish and Kars. Russians needed to be strongly reinforced. At this moment, In December 1914, General Nikolai Istomin ordered withdrawal from major Russian units at the

Persian Campaign Persian expedition or Persian campaign may refer to: * Persian campaign (Alexander the Great) (334–333 BC) * Julian's Persian expedition (363) * Persian expedition of Stepan Razin (1669) * Persian campaign of Peter the Great (1722–1723) * P ...

at the height of the

. Persia was denuded of Russian soldiers, and large bodies of troops were hurried forward to the front by rail from Kars, Erivan, and Julfa—almost, but not quite, too late. They would have been altogether too late if the 1st Army Corps had been able to make its contemplated descent on Kars, and the first concern of the Viceroy had been to send supports to the gallant regiment which alone had so long withstood the attack of the two divisions of this Corps before and at Ardahan. Yet larger reinforcements were dispatched to Sarikamish, and they arrived to find that though the place had been reft from Russian hands the battle was being waged with no less determined persistence and tenacity by their compatriots. Neither at Ardahan nor at Sarikamish were the Russians, even in the closing stages. Hardly any information regarding the battle of Ardahan can be obtained beyond statements that after the place was bombarded, the Russians drove the Stange Bey Detachment group out. Russian accounts state "by repeated charges utterly routed the enemy, who was crushed into fragments". Under the Russian Pressure the Kurdish Tribe volunteers separated from the Stange Bey Unit. These broken remnants fled in confusion back to Ardanuch, but, hotly pursued, were not allowed to rest there long, as it was reoccupied by the victors on 18 January 1915, some survivors from the Battle made good their escape into their own territory. The others sought refuge in the fastnesses of the Chorok ranges, where the

gave them shelter. This was the original unit established in Istanbul. Stenge Bey reestablished this unit. On 1 March 1915 The "Stange Bey Detachment" without volunteer support went back to its initial line, the "Stange Bey Detachment" managed to resist the Russians for more than two months in the region.

Force

The name of the force in western sources passes as the "I Army Corps", Turkish sources name it as Stange Bey (or Stanke Bey) detachment. The detachment was given to the command of the German Major Stange and became known as "Stange Bey Detachment". The size of the force is also in dispute. Western sources claim it had from 30,000 to 35,000 combatants; the precise figure is uncertain. The left wing which made up of This detachment unit, known as Stanke Bey, consisted of two battalions of the 8th Infantry Regiment and two artillery batteries. It was brought at the outset of the war from Constantinople and landed at Kopa and other ports on the Black Sea south of Batum, and supplemented by many irregulars in the district of the Choruk (northeast of Erzerum), where its concentration was effected.

Aftermath

The battle was the subject of a

Lubok A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki''; ) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. ''Lubki'' prints were used as decoration in houses and inns. Early exampl ...

popular print.�
The Battle of Ardahan
”

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. Accessed 11 May 2015.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardahan Conflicts in 1914 Conflicts in 1915 Battles of the Caucasus Campaign Battles of World War I involving the Ottoman Empire Battles of World War I involving Russia 1914 in the Russian Empire 1915 in the Russian Empire 1914 in Armenia 1915 in Armenia 1914 in the Ottoman Empire 1915 in the Ottoman Empire Kars oblast History of Ardahan December 1914 January 1915