Battle of Alexandropol

Battle of Alexandropol
Part of Turkish–Armenian War
Date November 7, 1920 Location Alexandropol (today Gyumri, Armenia) Result Turkish victory Treaty of Alexandropol
Belligerents
Armenia	Ankara Government
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Kâzım Karabekir

The Battle of Alexandropol was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement which was on November 7, 1920 at Alexandropol.

Background

Main article: Turkish invasion of Armenia

This section is an excerpt from Turkish invasion of Armenia.[ edit ]

Turkish advance into the First Republic of Armenia

In September 1920, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked the First Republic of Armenia, specifically in the Kars. Karabekir had orders from the Ankara Government to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} One estimate places the number of Armenians massacred by the Turkish army during the invasion at 100,000 ^[4] —this is evident in the marked decline (−25.1%) of the population of modern-day Armenia from 961,677 in 1919 ^[5] to 720,000 in 1920. ^[6] The Turkish military victory was followed by the Red Army invasion of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Turkish invasion and occupation had drastic humanitarian impacts to Armenia's population, ^[7] triggering condemnation from German and USA officials. ^{[8] [9] [10]} According to several historians, only Soviet intervention prevented the completion of the Armenian genocide. ^{[3] [11] [12]}

The hostilities ended with the Treaty of Alexandropol and the effective partition of Armenia between Kemalist Turkey and the Soviet union: most of Western Armenia was transferred to Turkey and Eastern Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Armenian Socialist Republic. This status was solidified by the annulment of the Treaty of Sevres, and the ratification of the Treaty of Moscow (March 1921) and Treaty of Kars (October 1921) between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Active Stage

On October 24, Karabekir's forces launched a massive campaign on Kars. Rather than fighting for the city, the Armenians abandoned Kars which by October 30 came under full Turkish control. Alexandropol was occupied by Turkish troops on November 7. Treaty of Kars. ^[13]

Results

See also: Treaty of Alexandropol

The Treaty of Alexandropol was a peace treaty between the Democratic Republic of Armenia and TBMM ending the Turkish-Armenian War, before declaration of the Republic of Turkey on December 2, 1920. Armenian was forced to renounce the Treaty of Sèvres and cede over 50% of her claimed territory to Turkey. ^[14]

References

1. Karabekir, Kâzim (1960). İstiklâl Harbimiz (PDF) (in Turkish). Türkiye Yayinevi. p. 901.
2. Safrastyan, Ruben (2019). Մուսթաֆա Քեմալ. Պայքար Հայաստանի Հանրապետության դեմ (1919-1921 թթ.) (in Armenian). Yerevan: Տիր. pp. 87–90. ISBN   978-9939-865-56-0.
3. Kévorkian, Raymond (2020). "The Final Phase: The Cleansing of Armenian and Greek Survivors, 1919–1922". Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State. Berghahn Books. pp. 164–165. ISBN   978-1-78920-451-3.
4. Nichanian, Mikaël [in French] (2015). Détruire les Arméniens. Histoire d'un génocide[Destroying the Armenians: History of a Genocide] (in French). Presses Universitaires de France. p. 238. ISBN   978-2-13-062617-6.
5. Korkotyan, Zaven (1932). Խորհրդային Հայաստանի բնակչությունը վերջին հարյուրամյակում (1831-1931) [The population of Soviet Armenia in the last century (1831–1931)](PDF) (in Armenian). Yerevan: Pethrat. pp. 164–184. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2022.
6. The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Edmund Herzig, Marina Kurkchiyan. London: RoutledgeCurzon. 2005. pp. 115–117. ISBN   0-203-00493-0. OCLC   229988654.
7. Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina, eds. (2014). The Armenians: past and present in the making of national identity. Caucasus world: peoples of the Caucasus (First issued in paperback ed.). London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 100. ISBN   978-1-138-87458-9. Industrial income had never been high in Russian Armenia, but in 1918–19 it totalled only 8 per cent of the 1914 pre-war level. The overall agricultural decline exceeded 80 per cent, and this was paralleled by the losses of livestock and farm implements. Thousands of animals had been slaughtered for food by the Turkish armies of occupation and thousands more were driven towards Kars when those armies had to withdraw after the war. Most of the remaining animals were devoured by the refugees or else succumbed to disease. The plight of the population was pitiful.
8. Melson, R. (2008-01-01). "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Taner Akcam (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), xii + 467 pp., $30.00" . Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 22 (1): 112–114. doi:10.1093/hgs/dcn005. ISSN   8756-6583. The American high commissioner for Armenia, William N.Haskell, was so shocked by the scale of the killings that he sent a warning to President Wilson on 16 August, saying that the United States should withdraw the Twelfth Article of his Peace Declaration regarding the Turks unless Turkish officials took effective measures to stop the massacre in the Caucasus.
9. "Historical Documents - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
10. Hayruni, Aschot (2024-02-09). "Die türkische Invasion in den Südkaukasus und das Massaker an der armenischen Bevölkerung Bakus im September 1918 vor dem Hintergrund der deutsch-türkischen Kontroverse | Թուրքական ներխուժումը Հարավային Կովկաս և Բաքվի հայ բնակչության կոտորածը 1918 թ․ սեպտեմբերին գերմանա-թուրքական տարակարծության ետնախորքում". Das kulturelle Erbe von Arzach | Արցախի մշակութային ժառանգությունը: Armenische Geschichte und deren Spuren in Berg-Karabach | Հայոց պատմությունը և դրա հետքերը Լեռնային Ղարաբաղում (in German): 235–249. doi:10.38072/978-3-928794-95-4/p11.
11. Astourian, Stephan; Kévorkian, Raymond, eds. (2020-11-01). Collective and State Violence in Turkey. Berghahn Books. pp. 164–165. doi:10.3167/9781789204506. ISBN   978-1-78920-450-6.
12. Balakian, Peter (2004). The burning Tigris: the Armenian genocide and America's response (1. Perennial ed.). New York: Perennial. pp. 329–330. ISBN   978-0-06-055870-3.
13. ULCHENKO, Dr. Natalia Yu. (2015). "A GLIMPSE OF HISTORY: HOW THE TREATY OF KARS WAS SIGNED (MARCH THROUGH OCTOBER, 1921)". Review of Armenian Studies. 32: 199–208.
14. HASANLI, Cemil (September 2021). "Political, Social and Diplomatic Relations Between Republic of Turkey and Azerbaijan and Soviet Russia". Turkish Foreign Policy During Ataturk's Era 1920-1938: Caucasia, Balkans, Middle East From Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Aspects. Istanbul - Turkey: Istanbul University Press. pp. 161–212. ISBN   9786050707847.