First Republic of Armenia: Encyclopedia II - First Republic of Armenia - WWI

First Republic of Armenia - WWI

The Armenian Police was created in 1918. Independent Armenia established the Ministry of Interior, of which the Police was an integral part. In addition to enforcing law and order, the Interior Ministry was initially also responsible for communications and telegraph, railroad, and the public school system. The Armenian parliament passed a law on the police on April 21, 1920, specifying its structure, jurisdiction, and responsibilities.

Meanwhile, The goverment of Ottoman Empire, Ittihad (Unionist), moved to win the friendship of the Bolsheviki. The signing of the Ottoman-Russian friendship treaty (January 1, 1918), helped the Vehib Pasa, to attack the new Republic. General T. Nazarbekian was the commander on the Caucasus front and General Antranig took the command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. Under heavy pressure from the combined forces of the Ottoman army and the Kurdish irregulars, Republic was forced to withdraw from Erzincan to Erzurum. Vehib Pasha also occupied Trabzon, where the Russians had left huge quantities of supplies. Republic at the end evacuated Erzurum and Sarikamis were.

Armenians were flooding from Anatolia to safe havens, and roads were clogged with refugees. Further southeast, in Van, the Armenians resisted the Turkish army until April, 1918, but eventually were forced to evacuate it and withdraw to Persia. When the Azerbaijani Tatars sided with the Turks and seized the communication lines, thus cutting off the Armenian National Councils in Baku and Erevan from the National Council in Tiflis.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "WWI", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki