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.
93
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.
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.