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92 
 
brief all the raw materials needed by German factories. Moreover, the Germans had 
an important political purpose, i. e. balancing Great Britain in India. In order to 
achieve this end, the Caucasus was seen as a bridge and main route to Persia and 
Central Asia. Therefore the Caucasus could not lie exclusively in Turkish hands.
247
 
Thus to balance the Ottoman existence and power in the Caucasus, Georgia 
and the Georgians emerged as the main allies or the agents of Germans. The 
increasing Ottoman threat in fact made the Georgian leaders already more receptive 
to the Germans. 
It was in this atmosphere that the interrupted negotiations of Trabzon were 
being reopened in Batum on 11 May 1918, the exact day of the North Caucasian 
declaration of independence. For this time, Ottoman and German interests were 
mutually exclusive and the Germans, through von Lossow,
248
 intervened in the 
negotiations. During the negotiations in Batum the main German objective was the 
internationalization of Batum, but the Turkish side naturally rejected it. Thus, the 
next best solution for the Germans remained concluding peace and alliance, and 
then to recognize Georgia. “Germans could then negotiate separately with Georgia 
and would thus not lose her point d’appui in the Caucasus.”
249
 
In compliance with these developments, the Germans pushed the Georgians 
to declare their separation from the Transcaucasian republic and establish a 
                                                 
247
 F. Fischer, Germany’s Aims, 550-51. 
248
 He as a representative of German general staff was empowered to conclude the preliminaries of a 
peace between the German Reich and the Transcaucasian government on 29 April 1918. He was an 
uncompromising advocate of German supremacy in the Caucasus and was prepared to oppose 
Ottomans’ plans flatly. 
249
 Fischer, Germany’s Aims, 556. 

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sovereign state under the protection of Germany. Even, Chenkheli proposed 
Georgian incorporation within Germany or some other form of union.
250
 
 
Meanwhile the Germans also contacted the representatives of the 
Mountaineer Republic. Lossow opened separate negotiations with Haydar Bammat 
and offered him German recognition of North Caucasian independence. Moreover, 
as a political means of securing this end, Lossow proposed, a ‘politically skilful 
general’ and ‘if possible, two divisions should be sent to Novorossisk and Tuapse.  
“The one way of ensuring the continued existence of the North Caucasian 
state was, he said, and Bammat expressly agreed with him, to attach it 
closely to the German state, not by an ordinary alliance, but by a close 
union, ‘unity of government on the highest level, of foreign policy, of 
currency, customs area, army and navy.’”
251
 
 
With the declaration, in İstanbul, of the independence of the North 
Caucasian Republic by the Mountaineers, and bid for help from the Great Powers, 
the situation in the North Caucasus was dramatic. The Bolsheviks already occupied 
the territory defined therein. The Bolsheviks, having captured Petrovsk, with the 
help of fresh troops sent from Astrakhan via Caspian, were moving towards Temir 
Khan Shura, the capital city of the newly established North Caucasian State. 
Therefore, most of the members of the Mountaineer government had already left 
the capital for the mountain regions of the North Caucasus or contingent areas.
252
 
                                                 
250
 In the last part of May 1918, partly because of the Turkish pressures and partly the German 
activities the Transcaucasian assembly met to dissolve the republic and first Georgia on 26 May and 
then Azerbaijan and Armenia on 28 May declared their independence. While the Georgians asked 
Germany to take the country under its protection and the Armenians asked for help in their 
desperate situation, Azerbaijanis choose the Ottomans. 
251
 Fischer, Germany’s Aims, 556. 
252
 Baytugan, “Kuzey Kafkasya,” 9 and Kurtatag, “Zadachi II,” 5. 

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94 
 
Thus, confident of Ottoman support, on 12 May 1918 representatives of the 
North Caucasian government applied to the Porte and ask for help.
253
 In this 
recourse through its representatives, the North Caucasian Republic, having stressed 
the situation in the region and inadequate military resources in the Republic, asked 
for the deployment of troops to the region as quickly as possible. The Turkish 
government, naturally, replied immediately and, the Ministry of War issued its first 
order for military aid to North Caucasus.
 254
 With that order, the Ministry proposed 
to send, one infantry, one cavalry division and one artillery regiment to the North 
Caucasus, initially. Furthermore, with that order, all the rights and responsibilities 
of the officers and troops sent to the region were defined. 
At the beginning of May 1918, the Turkish Army initiated the second phase 
of the Transcaucasian offensive. The Ottomans concluded treaties of friendship and 
cooperation, first with the Azerbaijani and then the North Caucasian governments, 
on 4 and 8 June 1918 respectively
255
, in a bid to counter the growing Bolshevik 
threat and German influence
256
 in the region. By summer 1918 the situation in the 
region became more complex. While the Bolsheviks were trying to control the 
                                                 
253
 The text of recourse which was signed by M. Karı (on behalf of Haydar Bammat) and A. 
Chermoev, the representatives of the government of the North Caucasus, dated 12 May 1334 
(1918), to the Porte could be seen from Kurat, appendix no. 24, 671-72 and “Kuzey Kafkasya 
Cumhuriyeti, Azerbaycan ve Osmanlı  İmparatorluğu Arasında Anlaşmalar,” autumn 1999, 
Kafkasya Yazıları, 7: 78-9. 
254
 The order no 2456 of the Ministry of War dated 13 May 1918. See M. Erşan, 1995. Birinci 
Dünya Harbinde Osmanlı Devleti’nin Kuzey Kafkasya Siyaseti (1914-1918), Erzurum: Atatürk 
Üniversitesi Atatürk İlkeleri ve İnkilap Tarihi Enstitüsü unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, 97-8. 
255
 For the text of the agreement Kurat, appendix no. 24, 672-674 and “Kuzey Kafkasya 
Cumhuriyeti, Azerbaycan ve Osmanlı  İmparatorluğu Arasında Anlaşmalar,” autumn 1999. 
Kafkasya Yazıları, 7: 79. This treaty was being signed in Batum on 8 June 1334 (1918) by the 
Minister of Justice and the President of the Council of State Halil Bey [Menteşe] and Commander 
in-chief of Ottoman Armies on the Caucasian Front, Vehib Pasha, and H. Bammatov, A. Chermoev, 
Ali Khan Kantemir, Zubeyr Temirhanov and Mehmed Karı. 
256
 On 3 June, 2 German battalion sent from the Crimea, landed at Poti. This caused the emergence 
of something like a real conflict between the Turks and Germans. See Allen and Muratoff, 477 and 
Fischer, Germany’s Aims, 560. 

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