Battle of Ardahan

The Battle of Ardahan (Ardahan Harekâtı; Битва при Ардагане, Armenian: Արդահանի ճակատամարտ) was fought between 25 December 1914 and 18 January 1915 and was an Ottoman military operation commanded by German Lt. Col. Stange to capture the city of Ardahan and cut the Russian link to Sarikamish–Kars line, supporting the Battle of Sarikamish. Ardahan was one of the eastern Ottoman provinces that had come under Russian rule in 1878. Armenian separatist ambitions proved to be just as unacceptable to the Russians as they had been to the Turks, but the Russians successfully overcame doctrinal differences between the Armenian and Russian churches to forge a common Christian identity in a bid to ignite a Christian uprising against the Muslim Turks. However, fearing reprisals against Armenian civilians, not all Armenians joined the Russian war effort. As the situation quickly escalated, Enver Pasha sought to outflank the Russian forces to seize Sarıkamış and cut off Russian access to railway lines. From Sarıkamış, Turkish forces would proceed to retake Kars, Batum and Ardahan. Enver planned to deploy the X Corps north to Ardahan, while the IX Corps proceeded to Sarıkamış. On the day of battle, 22 December, a terrible snowstorm struck. The Ottoman Third Army lacked proper supplies for these conditions, and incurring heavy losses retreated under Russian fire. The operation was part of what the Russian Empire viewed the Caucasus front. It was a secondary to the Eastern front. Russia had taken the fortress of Kars from the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 and feared a campaign into the Caucasus, aimed at retaking Kars and the port of Batum. Ottoman generalship and organization were negligible compared to the Allies. Enver hoped a success would facilitate opening the route to Tbilisi and beyond, with a revolt of Caucasian Muslims; another strategic goal was to cut Russian access to hydrocarbon resources around the Caspian Sea. This long-term goal made Britain wary; the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was in the proposed path.