2710) Massacres Of The Turks And Mass Graves by Enver Konukcu

The First World War was a disaster for the Ottomans on the Trans-Caucasian Front. Tsarist Russia, regarding the bombing of Black Sea harbours as a casus belli, attacked the Ottomans in eastern Anatolia at the end of 1914. The Third Army at first won some victories under the Acting Commander-in-Chief Enver Pafla in the Allahuekber and Sarikamis Mountains, but the sudden onset of winter conditions, bringing extremely . . cold weather compared by the Russians to that of Siberia, resulted in large numbers of Turkish soldiers freezing to death. One of the main factors in the Turkish defeat on this front was inadequate supplies of food and medical equipment. The Russian fleet blockaded the Trabzon harbour, and the railways and roads leading eastwards from Istanbul via Eskisehir, Ankara and Kayseri were unsuitable.

Following the victory at Sarikamis, the Russians marched on Hasankale and Erzurum. Impervious to winter conditions, General Nikolay Nikolayevich Yudenich captured the Erzurum Fort (16 February 1916).1 Since the Commander of the Turkish Third Army, Mahmud Kâmil Pasha, had ordered the garrison to withdraw, losses were slight. Abdülkerim Pasha had simultaneously withdrawn with the rearguard through the Istanbul Gate to the Ilica line. The population of Erzurum once more became refugees, fleeing under the extremely difficult conditions towards . .

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