Part 10

Bloody waves of massacres of non-Armenian populations by Armenians

During the theatres of war in the First World War, Armenians perpetrated acts of slaughter and plunder against the Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire with reported success. General Odishelidze himself mentioned this historical fact, and as the commander of the Caucasus Front, it can be assumed that he had reliable information about these events. In his 1919 historical work "Borders of Georgia", the author notes that Armenians were more ruthless, logical and methodical than Turks in defeating them, although these evaluations are subjective.

Austrian journalist Stefan Eshnan also witnesses Armenian brutality, stating that traces are present in almost every step. The destruction of all villages from Trabzon to Erzincan and from Erzincan to Arzrum is also reported.

 General Odishelidze made derogatory remarks about the Armenians. What is more concerning is that Dashnak fighting units carried out massacres of peaceful Muslim populations in Transcaucasia. This also occurred against Georgian Muslims in the historical lands of Georgia, where the remaining Armenian units had gathered.

In the newspaper "Georgia" issue dated 20th December 1918, it is reported that 5 soldiers were shot by Armenians after being taken prisoner in the first days.   According to an archival document, two Georgian soldiers were found horribly mutilated in the village of Agaraki where the killings took place. The soldiers were sent to Vorontsovka on a cart immediately. It is believed that the dead soldiers were also mutilated. There is evidence that Reuben was attacked by cowardly enemies and received several blows. The eyes of the victim were also affected by bayonets. Abkhazava and several others underwent torture and were subsequently taken away in carts. Uzunliari is entered on the left by a stream, which is followed by a motorway elevated at two arshin, where the defiled corpses were disposed of in front of a trench, covered with soil and buried. The victims were not granted a Christian burial until two months later.

This passage is a biographical account of Lieutenant David Barnabishvili, a heroic Georgian officer who lost his life in the war. According to reports, he was severely beaten and left naked in a field for 15 days, where he was preyed upon by wild animals. Ultimately, he was buried alongside 9 other military men.

Other Armenian groups were similarly brutal in their actions. For instance, a newspaper article from the same period recounts the "Karabakh Brigade" led by Andranik Ozanian conducting horrifying activities in Zangezur. The Azerbaijani government allegedly received a telegram from Ganja outlining these actions.

Their army then left their positions where they had fought off the Armenians and dispersed to their homes. Andranik seized the opportunity and instructed his army, which consisted of Ottoman and local Armenians, to attack the Muslim villages. After receiving a proposal from the Anglo-French delegation to cease hostilities against the Muslims, they surrendered to the delegation of the Great Powers.

Upon receiving the order, Armenia mobilized and attacked neighboring Muslim villages, resulting in numerous instances of brutal torture without regard for age or gender, as well as the desecration of bodies. Several villages were entirely burnt, and ten local women were taken.   Chief of the Zangezur Army, Melik-Namazaliyev, requests immediate military intervention. 

Telegram from Jebrail: "Armenians destroyed over 50 Tatar villages in Zangezur, resulting in thousands of casualties. All villages within the fifth extension have been entirely devastated." Andranik, with a force of 5,000 men, has been besieging Zubah for three days and intends to advance towards Shusha. The Ottoman commandant is no longer present, and the county head has failed to take action. The affected population is fleeing to Persia. The villages of the second, third, and fourth annexes were destroyed.

Jamil Sultanov, chairman of the National Council stated "The Minister of the Interior has received a telegram from Terter village reporting that the Armenians attacked Gyuntskaya village, causing complete devastation and looting of commodities. Furthermore, Muslim women were seized, causing the residents to express grief and discontent." Jamil Sultanov, chairman of the National Council stated "The Minister of the Interior has received a telegram from Terter village reporting that the Armenians attacked Gyuntskaya village, causing complete devastation and looting of commodities. Melik-Abasov, the district's leader, provided this information.

And finally, an excerpt from Mr Iosif Imedashvili's publication, a direct eyewitness of the actions of Dashnak militants. Mr Imedashvili is a well-known public figure, a great supporter, and patron of Georgian culture, who has described the situation after one of the combat episodes in the Armenian-Georgian war: "On the 11th of December, the dark side of the human soul was once again exposed, and its ferocity was shown." That day revealed the heinous actions of the enemy without any scruples: on a snowy slope during a clear morning, General Tsulukidze scrutinised the battlefield and slope through a telescope. There he saw a horrific sight, unlike anything he had seen in previous wars - the bodies of tortured soldiers strewn across the field...

The general was in disbelief and dispatched Lieutenant Kordzaia to investigate. Upon inspection, Lieutenant Kordzaia discovered that Armenian forces had desecrated the bodies of Georgian officer-soldiers killed during a treacherous nighttime attack. Here are several casualties of war - a naked soldier with his genitalia removed and placed in his mouth, a young man with a well-groomed beard and mustache, who met his death under unknown circumstances by dagger, perhaps even posthumously. Another young man, who had a muscular build akin to that of a tiger, suffered a fractured skull, scratched hands, and gnawed joints. Here are the necessary improvements in British English: Additionally, several soldiers were present who were stripped of their clothing and had their noses severed. Some people had their eyes pierced with spears and others were chopped to pieces. This violence was committed by the "advanced army of Armenians" as they were called by the crowd led by famous Armenian revolutionaries.

We present these distressing accounts for a purpose. They are not intended to provoke animosity and disdain towards the Armenian people. Rather, the referenced documentary evidence is a stern reminder of how misguided notions and objectives can lead the human mind to unspeakable depths.

It must be stressed that not all military units and factions affiliated with the Armenian Armed Forces were involved in the acts of rioting, plundering, and murdering of non-combatants detailed above.  There were certainly organized and combat-ready units in the Armenian army. Specifically, the regiments of the 2nd Armenian Rifle Division commanded by General Movses Silikov (Silikian) were exemplary. It is worth noting that General Silikov was not ethnically Armenian but rather an Udin from the village of Vartashen in Elizavetpol province (now the town of Oguz).

It is a fact that the units of this division successfully resisted the powerful advance of the Ottoman forces toward Yerevan, thereby preserving the center of the former province. During a time when Generals Nazarbegov and Andranik were hopelessly retreating, General Silikov was engaged in his share of battles in the neighborhood of Yerevan. On the 15th of May, Silikov's military force, consisting of the 5th and 6th Rifle Regiments, one battalion each of the 4th Regiment, the 1st and 2nd Volunteer Van Regiments, one cavalry regiment, and the 28th Artillery Regiment, numbered between 6,000 and 7,000 men. They effectively repelled the Turkish offensive. The 5th, 6th, and partially 4th regiments of the 2nd Rifle Division were the most organized and combat-ready military units of the Armenian Armed Forces. These units were the ones that participated in the Armenian-Georgian war from October 1918.

The evidence presented demonstrates that the groups referred to as Dashnak "combat detachments", which were essentially punitive and terroristic gangs, were referred to as "Armenian regiments" by pro-Armenian and Armenian writers. These groups were involved in carrying out raids on the peaceful Muslim communities of the Ottoman Empire and Transcaucasia as well as in carrying out violent attacks in military operation zones. It is apparent that such actions, which involve immoral and unethical behavior, cannot be attributed to bravery in any sense.

From this perspective, it is worth noting that the situation in the Georgian armed forces was not exemplary. Nevertheless, in terms of overall morale, the entire structure of the Georgian Armed Forces, which encompassed the regular army alongside the People's Guard and volunteer units, possessed a significant advantage over the Armenians. This played a crucial role in shaping the Armenian-Georgian war's overall trajectory.

Myths about the "Armenian Aviation" and the "Armenian Navy”

In the summer of 1918, the Baku Bolshevik-Dashnak dictatorship's troops, along with the Armenian National Corps' eastern group, launched a significant offensive operation towards Ganja to overthrow the legitimate government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Stefan Shaumyan requested military-technical support for the aggression from Astrakhan to Baku, which was subsequently dispatched by Lenin's order. "On 20th June, four armored personnel carriers and thirteen planes arrived in Baku, carrying eighty cannons, one hundred and sixty machine guns, ten thousand rifles, two hundred thousand cartridges, and clothing.

These Russian planes and armored trains were sent by Lenin to the "Baku Bolshevik commune". Armenian authors conveniently used the above quote, which falsely labeled the equipment as belonging to the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia."

We have consistently demonstrated that Armenian and pro-Armenian authors tend to present subjective evaluations as objective reality. They are unrestricted in their efforts to achieve their objectives and fabricate incredulous narratives. Neither armored personnel carriers belonging to the Armenian corps nor military aviation of Armenia existed during that period. Based on this logic, the Caspian Sea fleet controlled by the Dashnak-Bolshevik and Dashnak-Eser dictatorial unions can be considered as belonging to the Armenian Armed Forces.

Also, unlike in "Armenian Aviation," Armenian authors cannot stop their "sense of moderation" without causing comic situations and refrain from mentioning "military and naval forces of Armenia and fleets or flotillas of Armenia."

Armenia-Georgia and their military and political allies in 1918

In politics, the selection of a suitable strategic partner is a crucial issue that determines the fate and future of a state. In politics, the selection of a suitable strategic partner is a crucial issue that determines the fate and future of a state. It is, therefore, essential to exercise careful consideration in selecting allies and avoiding strategic errors that prove disastrous. This fact underscores the significance of identifying and choosing a favourable strategic partner for every state. In politics, the selection of a suitable strategic partner is a crucial issue that determines the fate and future of a state. Throughout history, alliances and agreements played a crucial role in the presence or absence of nations on the political map.

For small nations, the issue has always been a doubly responsible problem. Regarding Georgia and Armenia, the choice of a strategic partner takes on specific significance from the outset as a crossroads between Europe and Asia, and buffer of the Asian Muslim world with the rest of the world.

By the will of Big Politics, Armenia and Georgia found themselves drawn into opposing camps following independence.  The supporters of "Greater Armenia" within the Dashnak party aligned themselves with the Entente, the anti-Kaiser and anti-Ottoman coalition. Meanwhile, the Menshevik government of Georgia was compelled to adopt a pro-German stance due to the inescapable circumstances.

The Armenians' decision to align with the Entente implied a "pro-Belgovardian" stance, leading to the establishment of intimate military and political connections with General Anton Denikin, the "supreme ruler of Southern Russia". Conversely, at this stage, the Georgians' sole dependable allies were the Germans. Regarding this matter, Alexey Bezugolny, a renowned scientist-employee at the Research Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, observes concisely and objectively that "Georgians opted for a pro-German position, Armenians for a pro-English stance, and Azerbaijanis for a pro-Turkish position." This is a clear and indisputable fact.

Some Georgian politicians and military leaders held optimistic expectations regarding the British entry into Transcaucasia, particularly the latter group.  

Their optimism was based on two factors:

1. The Democratic Republic of Georgia and Britain shared the same adversary in Bolshevik Russia.

2. During World War I, numerous Georgian generals and officers fought alongside the tsarist Russian army, which was an ally of Great Britain.

Hence, it is plausible that General Levan (Lenko) Golashvili, one of the distinguished Georgian commanders of the "Caucasian Wild Division" and "Muslim Army Corps", was pragmatic about establishing a robust Georgian force supported by the British.

From Archil Chachkhiani's book "The Armenian-Georgian War"

To be continued