Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
By Oleg Airapetov
[REGNUM] The defeat of the German and the collapse of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires led to a sharp change in the situation in Transcaucasia. The Batumi treaty was canceled, the German and Turkish troops left, their place was taken by the British. New opportunities arose for local nationalist governments, and the main problem was the redistribution of territories in a space where ethnic stripes were the basis for mutually exclusive claims of the parties. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan proclaimed the borders, which made war between these republics inevitable.
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The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict went on almost without interruption, especially in the Zangezur and Shusha districts of the former Elizavetpol province, where the Armenian and Muslim Shiite population constituted an unstable balance with a slight advantage of Armenians (118,098 people and 113,594 people). in Zangezur and 75,104 against 52,057 in the Shusha district), while in the entire province (1,249,494 people), Shiite Muslims also constituted an unstable majority - 416,955 people. and Sunni Muslims - 264,923 people.
A serious problem after the attempt to capture Sochi and Tuapse was the attitude of Tiflis towards the white movement. In general, it was hostile. The government quite clearly and clearly stated it on the pages of officialdom - the newspaper "Georgia": "with the" Denikinists "there can only be an irreconcilable struggle for freedom."
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia E. P. Gegechkori publicly stated: “We stand fully armed on guard. We have never harbored and now do not harbor any aggressive intentions against anyone. Nor do we nourish them against the Volunteer Army. But I must emphasize that any encroachment on our territory and on our freedom will meet with desperate resistance from our side. And this is not a phrase, not a verbal threat, but a real fact that everyone will have to reckon with and reckon with.”
The difficulty lay in what lands Tiflis considered to be its territory.
In September 1918, in Yekaterinodar, the command of the Volunteer Army tried to regulate relations with the Georgian Republic through negotiations. The negotiations lasted two days - from the side of the volunteers they were led by the gene. from inf. Alekseev, Tiflis was represented by Gegechkori. He immediately took an uncompromising position in relation to the question of the Sochi District, and already on the second day it became clear that no agreement could be reached. Alekseev was already seriously ill and could hardly restrain himself. Gegechkori began by proposing that the Volunteer Army be considered "a private initiative of private individuals." The general warned:
"I would not advise anyone to call the Volunteer Army a “private undertaking of private individuals" If the representatives of Georgia wish to negotiate with us, then I ask them to remember the following: this is not a "private undertaking of private individuals," the State is being built here, Russia is being restored here!"
This is what did not suit the Georgian nationalists. The general proposed to establish a demarcation along the administrative border, Gegechkori categorically disagreed with this, insisting on maintaining the de facto situation, that is, the Georgian occupation. Tiflis hoped for support from the Germans, whom he was going to provide with bread from the Kuban.
By the end of 1918 - the beginning of 1919, the hostage of the Georgian invaders in the Sochi district led to the fact that an insurrectionary movement began here. Since October 1918, the Georgian-Armenian contradictions in the Lori region have also become aggravated. Erivan began to send its troops into the villages of the Borchali district populated by Armenians, which provoked a response from Tiflis.
The Georgian government demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the border of the Tiflis province. The clashes did not develop into a major conflict due to the presence of German occupying forces. In addition to the aggravation on the line of demarcation with Armenia, the problem for the nationalist government of Georgia was created by national minorities, and above all, Abkhazians and Ossetians who did not recognize the government of Georgia.
The claims of Tiflis in this case were based on the principle of maintaining the administrative borders that existed in the Russian Empire. On June 12 (24), 1883, the Batumi region and the Sukhum department were annexed to the Kutaisi province, forming two new districts in it - Batumi and Artvin. In March 1919, under the control of the Georgian administration, elections were held to the People's Council, which on March 20, 1919 adopted the "Act on the Autonomy of Abkhazia," naturally, as part of Georgia. Of course, this declaration did not solve the obvious problems that already existed. The abuses of the occupying authorities in Abkhazia quickly deprived the representatives of Tiflis of the support that was initially provided by part of the local population.
Far from everything was simple in the region of modern Adjara. On March 17 (30), 1903, the Batumi and Artvin districts were again merged into the Batumi region under the control of a military governor. In 1910, 137,912 people lived in the Batumi region. the indigenous population (in Batum it was very small - 1,706 people) and 32,465 temporary residents (the absolute majority of them - 27,767 - in Batum).
Batum was a trading and multinational city. On the eve of the First World War, about 30,000 people lived in it, of which 28.9 percent were Georgians and Mingrelians, 22% Russians, 14.3 percent Greeks, 13.5 percent Armenians, five percent Jews, 6.5 percent the rest. At the same time, a third of the city's population was represented by foreign nationals, of which 7,000 people. had Turkish citizenship, 2,000 - Greece, 640 - Persia and about 250 people. - other countries. Most of the inhabitants of the region were Muslim Georgians (68,838 people), there were only 289 Orthodox Georgians from the indigenous population, and 3,862 visitors. In addition, among the local residents there were representatives of "different Asian nationalities" - these were Muslims who considered themselves Turks (some of them were Georgians who became Turks).
There were 55,354 such people in 1910. Culturally and politically, local Muslims gravitated towards Turkey. Tiflis clearly saw in the Batumi region a continuation of the Kutaisi province and did not want to recognize the rights of its inhabitants to autonomy. There were 55,354 such people in 1910. Culturally and politically, local Muslims gravitated toward Turkey. Tiflis clearly saw in the Batumi region a continuation of the Kutaisi province and did not want to recognize the rights of its inhabitants to autonomy. There were 55,354 such people in 1910. Culturally and politically, local Muslims gravitated towards Turkey. Tiflis clearly saw in the Batumi region a continuation of the Kutaisi province and did not want to recognize the rights of its inhabitants to autonomy.
The problem of confrontation in the Borchaly district was never resolved, and a clash there became inevitable. In early December, clashes between Armenian and Georgian units began along the demarcation line. Local residents, driven to despair by the behavior of Georgian soldiers, actively assisted the Armenian units. On December 12, skirmishes escalated into battles. The Georgian units were commanded by Gen.-M. Prince Varden Tsulukidze, Armenian - Dro (Drastamat Kanayan).
In December 1918, the Georgians evacuated part of the forces from the Sochi district in connection with the outbreak of war with Armenia. At the same time, Tiflis did not renounce claims to this territory. The Black Sea Governor-General Gen.-m. A.P. Kutepov and the head of the 2nd Infantry Division, Gen.-m. A. N. Cherepov. At the first stage of the Georgian-Armenian war, the initiative belonged to the Armenian side, which quite successfully launched the offensive.
The Georgians retreated with losses, abandoning artillery and the wounded. On December 18, Tiflis began a partial mobilization of four ages. In the meantime, the Armenians, having reached the borders of the Borchali district, stopped, which made it possible for the Georgians to use the respite to prepare a counterattack. It began on December 28, and on December 30, the Georgians ousted the Armenians from the disputed territory. subsequent agreement,
Jan 24 1919 detachment of Gen.-m. A. N. Cherepova occupied Sochi - he was joyfully greeted by local residents. By mid-February, the territory of the district was cleared of the Georgian administration and troops, the commander of the Primorsky Front, Gen.-m. Alexander Koniev (Koniashvili) and his staff were taken prisoner. Volunteers went to the river Bzyb. In Georgia, these events caused an extremely painful reaction, which intensified after the Abkhazians and Armenians raised an uprising against the Georgian authorities in Abkhazia.
For their part, the Georgian authorities supported the "green" and red partisans in the Sochi district. At the beginning of April 1919, Georgian troops tried to go on the offensive against the weak barriers of the All-Union Socialist Republic on the border river Bzyb with the aim of capturing Sochi. Georgian units took possession of Adler and began to purge the Armenian and Russian villages, however,
As a result, Tiflis turned to the representatives of England for help in order to get support for his claims this time from London. As a result, an agreement was concluded under which the Georgian forces were withdrawn across the Bzyb River, and volunteers across the Mekhadyr River, the neutral zone was occupied by British troops. The Gagrinsky District, thus, remained outside the control of the All-Union Socialist Republic.
The border remained unestablished, the “green” detachments were also very active, and the relative calm was maintained solely by the presence of troops. Denikin was forced to keep from 2,500 to 6,500 soldiers and officers there. In addition, an auxiliary cruiser and a pair of destroyers were constantly in Novorossiysk. From time to time, these ships displayed the flag off the coast and at the boundary line near the Psou River. Their presence also had a calming effect on the Georgians.
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