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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
312
atrocities became steadiiy worse, the sufferings and starvation
of the Armenians were indescribable, and the country was
overrun by several hundred thousand refugees. All the corn
was carried off or destroyed, all Armenian property wrecked,
all movables tåken away. Clearly the Turkish leaders intended
to exterminate the Armenians in Russian Armenia as well.1
Following the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Republic
(May 26, 1 91 8), Armenia proclaimed itself an independent
republic. After the Tatars of Azerbaijan joined Turkey, the
Armenians, who till then had borne the brunt of the defence,
stood quite alone, and were obliged to make peace with the
Turks on June 4, 191 8. They were allowed to keep the
Novo-Bajazet region and part of the districts of Alexandropol,
Echmiadzin, and Erivan (9,000 square kilometres, with a
population of 350,000) ; but in spite of the peace the Turks
went on pillaging the country.
Aided by the Tatars of Azerbaijan they next attacked
Baku, and took it on September 15, 191 8. Nuri Pasha, the
general in command and a younger brother of Enver Pasha,
allowed the Tatars to sack the town for three days and massacre
the Christians, who were chiefly Armenians. While the
streets re-echoed to the shooting and the screams of the
victims, Nuri Pasha held a review outside the town, and then
sat down with his officers to a banquetin the Hotel Métropole.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 Armenians were massacred in
Baku during the three days. This was done as a reprisal
because the Armenians and Russian Bolsheviks had killed
several hundred Tatars during the short time they were in
power in Baku, and that in turn was a reprisal because the
Tatar militia, after the dissolution of the Transcaucasian
Republic (May 26, 191 8), had looted the Armenian villages
near Erivan.
Then came the collapse of Germany and Turkey ; and
after the armistice on October 30, 191 8, the Turks had to
retire behind the frontiers they had held before the war. The
Armenians were able to return to Alexandropol, Kars, Ardahan,
1 Cf. the telegram of August 4th and letter of August 5, 1918, from Freiherr
von Kress, the German representative in the Caucasus (Tiflis), to the Imperial
Chancellor, quoted in Lepsius, op. eit., pp. xlviii, 420 f., 424 ff.
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