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Persian Campaign
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| Persian Campaign | |||||||
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| Part of Middle Eastern theatre (World War I) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |
 Russian Empire British Empire |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| • Rauf Bey • Halil Paşa• |
Nikolai Yudenich General Myshlaevsky General Chernozubov General Nazarbekov Percy Cox.svg.html){kind=small} Ibrahim Khan Qavam-ul-Mulk |
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| Strength | |||||||
| •2nd Army •Persian Central Government Gendarmerie |
•Russian Caucasus Army •Detachment Armenian volunteer units |
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The Persian Campaign or Invasion of Persia, was a series of engagements between December 1914 and March, 1916 that took place in northern and western Persia as an part of the Caucasus Front for Russian Empire, and for British Empire and Ottoman Empire part of Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
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[edit] Background
Persia was neutral in World War I, but was affected by the rivalry between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Persia had significant oil reserves, and was strategically situated between Afghanistan and the warring Ottoman, Russian, and British Empire.
The Ottoman Empire's — or rather German — strategic goal was to cut off Russian access to the hydrocarbon resources around the Caspian Sea.[1] The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was in the proposed path which had the exclusive rights to work petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Ghilan, Mazendaran, Asdrabad and Khorasan.[1] In 1914, before the war, the British government had contracted with the company for the supply of oil-fuel for the navy.[1]
[edit] Prelude
The Intelligence Bureau for the East was established on the eve of World War I dedicated to promoting and sustaining subversive and nationalist agitations in the British Indian Empire and the Persian and Egyptian satellite states. It was involved in early plans for war and the Caliph's decision to declare Jihad. The bureau was involved in intelligence and subversive missions to Persia and to Afghanistan. Its Persia operations were led by Wilhelm Wassmuss.[2]
Of a more serious threat were German espionage attempts in Persia. The Germans hoped to free Persia from British and Russian influence, and to further create a wedge between Russia and the British, eventually leading to an invasion of British India by locally organized armies. Wilhelm Wassmuss and Count Kaunitz were at the head of this operation. Wilhelm Wassmuss, known as the German Lawrence, was a German consular official in Persia who loved the desert, and wore the flowing robes of a desert tribesman He persuaded his superiors in Constantinople that he could lead Persian tribes in a revolt against Britain.
[edit] Operations
[edit] 1914
On December 1914, the beginning of the war, Russians maintained forces in northern Persia. At the height of the Battle of Sarikamish General Myshlaevsky ordered withdrawal from Persia.[3] Only one brigade of Russian troops under the command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of Armenian volunteers scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia. Contact was limited to skirmishes on the border of northern Persia. Kurdish bands plundered and murdered the Christian population[citation needed] – that is Armenians and Assyrians[citation needed]. The presence of Russian cavalry units kept them quiet. [3]
The 2nd Army established one division of troops from conscripted at Constantinople.[4] This unit was given under the command of Khalil Bey.[4] Nearly 10,000 Kurds from the region became part of this unit.[4] Khalil Bey with his superior forces captured the city of Urmia in a few hours and marched on Salmast.[4] At the end of 1914, Khalil took nearly a thousand Russians prisoners.[4]
[edit] 1915
On January 14, 1915, the Khalil bey's regulars and reinforced with Kurdish volunteers entered Tabriz. Apparently taking the Russian higher command completely by surprise.
On January 26-28, 1915, in Sufian area, General Chernozubov had a brief fighting. Russia sent a strong force which. succeeded in recapturing the city. Chernozubov entered Tabriz on January 30.
In April 1915, Turks under Halil Paşa moved towards Tabriz. This was place one of the fiercest battles between the Armenians and the Turks.[4] The first battalion of the Armenian volunteers, under the command of the Andranik repulsed the attacks of Khalil Bey, until the Russian Chernozubov arrived[4] The newly-arrived Russian forces from the Caucasus, they were able to put to flight Khalil Bey.[4] He lost thirty-six hundred soldiers in the course of those three days.[4] General Nazarbekov managed to push Halil Pasha regulars towards Başkale after the Battle of Diliman (April 15, 1915), securing the situation.[3]
On May 8, one of the twelve Armenian messengers from Van Resistance had got through into Persia[5] An Armenian volunteer unit with Andranik, along with 1200 man, and commander Chernoroyal's division dispatched toward the Bashkaleh. They captured Bashkaleh on May 7. This group from Persia reach the City of Van on May 18. [5] They had expected to find Van still in a state of siege and were amazed at finding it in the hands of the Armenians.[5] When word got to Yudenich, he sent a brigade of Trans-Baikal Cossacks under General Trukhin. With Van secure, fighting shifted farther west for the rest of the summer.[3]
During July, Russian forces had a retreat at the Caucasus Campaign, one Russian column retreated up to Persian frontier. During June, Yudenich planned an attack to limit the Ottomans at Moush and Manzikert. But the Turks were organizing. He planned to outflank from Beyazit and Persian Azerbaijan towards Van.[3] However, the Russian advance toward the Caucuses campaign did not last long. The Russian forces suffered reverses. The command of Khalil Bey Eleven divisions of regular troops attacked the very center of the Russian Caucasian advance. In a few days they with Battle of Malazgirt July 16, and later Battle of Kara Killisse the Russian army retreated.
In August 1915, British occupy Bushire, gendarmes under Akhgar retreat to Burazjan.
In November 1915, Major Pesyan as commander of Gendarmerie in Hamedan launched an attack on the pro-Russian Persian Cossack Brigade at the Battle of Musalla. His gendarmes managed to disarm the Persian Cossacks and he managed to win some of the cossacks to join his forces in a patriotic speech he made to them after their defeat. After this victory, Russians advanced on the Persian Gendermerie, in Robat-i-Karim forces under Mohammad Hossein Jahanbani and in Hamedan-Kermanshah road forces under Major Pesyan and Azizollah Zarghami could not defend Hamedan against an advancing Russian Caucasus Army which was superior in numbers and weapons. In Soltanabad, gendarmerie force under Masoud Kayhan were also defeated by the Russians. Gendarmes then retreated to Kermanshah.
In November 10, 1915 pro-Central powers Persian Gendarmerie under Ali Quli Khan Pasyan defeat pro-British Khamseh tribal forces of Ibrahim Khan Qavam-ul-Mulk and capture Shiraz. All British residents of Shiraz are arrested. Gendarms also capture Yazd and Kerman.
In 1915 Wilhelm Wassmuss] conferred with local chiefs and distributed pamphlets urging revolt. He was arrested by a local chief, but managed to escape from British custody. This plan was conducted in conjunction with the Turks. They hoped to incite a revolt through pro-German members of the Persian government in conjunction of invasion of Turkish troops towards Kermanshah and Hamadan.[3]
[edit] 1916
In Spring 1916, Ibrahim Khan Qavam-ul-Mulk and his Khamseh tribesmen defeated Gendarmes under Ali Quli Khan Pesyan and Ghulam Riza Khan Pesyan who shot and killed each other. Other gendarmes, the German Consul Roever and the Swede Captain Angman got arrested and tortured.
On February 16, 1916, Kirmanshah was taken.
On February 26, 1916, Russians advanced and defeated the Gendarmes who then retreated to Qasr-i-Shirin and managed to hold the region until May 1916, when Qasr-i-Shirin was captured by the Russians and this time many Gendarmes went to live in exile in Istanbul, Mosul and Baghdad.
In 1916 General Chernozubov sent a military exhibition in Hakkyari. The squads within the expedition were led by the Patriarch’s brother David; Ismail, Malik of the Upper Tyari; and Andreus, the Jilu Malik.
On March 1, 1916, operations were complete.[3]
On August 1916 gendarmes return to Kermanshah.
The premature coup was crushed in Tehran as Ahmad Shah Qajar took refuge in the Russian legation, and a sizable Russian force arrived to Tehran under Baratov after they landed in Bandar-e Pahlavi in November of that year.[3]
The pro-German coup members of the Majles fled to Kirmanshah and Qom without fighting.
On December 1916, Baratov began to move on Qoms and Hamadan, to clear German sympathizers and Turkish troops. Both cities fell in the same month.[3] Count Kaunitz disappeared without a trace, either killing himself or being a victim of assassination by disenchanted coup members.
[edit] 1917
In 1917 Mar Binyamin was invited to the Russian embassy by Vasily Nikitin in Urmia for negotiations. Nikitin assured the Assyrians that after the War they will have a national community land in Russia. At the meeting the Patriarch was accompanied by Agha Putrus. The presence of the armed squads of Assyrians in Urmiya irritated Persians. Persians were afraid that Russians might come back and, united with the Assyrians, proclaim their power in the city.
The chaos caused by the Russian Revolution put a stop to all Russian military operations. The new government removed the Grand Duke from his command and reassigned General Yudenich to a meaningless position in Central Asia. He then retired from the army. The Russian army slowly disintegrated until there was no effective military force during the rest of 1917.
[edit] Aftermath
After the defeat Major Pesyan went to live in exile in Berlin. During his time in Berlin, he was trained as a pilot in the German Airforce and was rewarded with the Eisernes Kreuz Medal for shooting down more than 25 enemy aircraft during WWI.
After the Russian left the Persia, following the Russian revolution; Mar Shimmun wholly understood the difficult situation the Assyrians. In 1918 he was convincing Agha Putrus not to fight against Persians but to make peace with them in his messages. We can see that Assyrians did not put down their weapons as the Patriarch advised but on the contrary chose to attack.
[edit] Casualties
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920, v.28, p.403
- ^ Popplewell, Richard J (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904-1924., Routledge, ISBN 071464580X, <http://www.routledge.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=071464580X&parent_id=&pc=>
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hinterhoff, Eugene (1984). Persia: The Stepping Stone To India. Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I, vol iv. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. pp. pp.1153-1157. ISBN 0-86307-181-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Aram, "Why Armenia Should be Free," page 22
- ^ a b c Ussher, An American Physician, 286.
[edit] See also
- Military history of Iran
- General Lionel Dunsterville of Dunsterforce
- Russo-Persian Wars
- Turko-Persian War
- Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
- Imperialism in Asia
- Morgan Shuster
[edit] References
- Operations in Persia 1914-1919 by Brigadier-General F J Moberly (Printed 1929 but classed 'Confidential'; 1987 reprint, HMSO) ISBN 0 11 290453 X
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