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Concept
Battle of Sarikamish
Summary
The Battle of Sarikamish was an engagement between the Russian and the Ottoman Empires during World War I that took place from December 22, 1914, to January 17, 1915, as part of the Caucasus campaign.
The battle resulted in a Russian victory. The Ottomans employed a strategy that demanded highly-mobile troops who could arrive at specified objectives at precise times. The approach was based on both German and Napoleonic tactics. The Ottoman troops, ill-prepared for winter conditions, suffered major casualties in the Allahuekber Mountains. Around 25,000 Ottoman soldiers had frozen to death before the start of the battle.
After the battle, Ottoman War Minister Enver Pasha, who had planned the Ottoman strategy in Sarikamish, publicly blamed his defeat on the Armenians, and the battle served as a prelude to the Armenian genocide.
Russia viewed the Caucasus Front as secondary to the Eastern Front, which enjoyed the major share of Russian resources. Russia had taken the fortress of Kars from the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877, when it was incorporated into the militarily administered Kars Oblast. After the Ottoman Empire entered the war in October 1914 on the side of the Central Powers, Russia now feared a Caucasus Campaign aimed at retaking Kars and the port of Batum.
From the point of view of the Central Powers, a campaign in the Caucasus would have a distracting effect on Russian forces. The immediate strategic goal of the Caucasus Campaign was to retake Artvin, Ardahan, Kars, and the port of Batum. As a longer-term goal, head of the Ottoman war ministry İsmail Enver hoped a success would facilitate opening the route to Tbilisi and beyond, which in turn would trigger a revolt of Caucasian Muslims. Another Turkish strategic goal was to cut Russian access to its hydrocarbon resources around the Caspian Sea.
The headquarters of the Ottoman 3rd Army was in Erzurum, under the command of Hasan Izzet. On 30 October 1914, the 3rd Army headquarters was informed by High Command in Constantinople about the Ottoman navy's bombardment of the Russian ports of Novorossiysk, Odessa and Sevastopol in the Black Sea.
Official source
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