[CAUCASUS / RUSSIA / BRITAIN / THE MIDDLE EAST] Sarikamis 1 Haziran [13]39 senesi istihbârât hülâsalari. Mahrem ve hizmete mahsûs No. 5. [i.e., Intelligence extracts of the Sarikamis Front in 1339 (1923). Restricted No. 5)

[CAUCASUS / RUSSIA / BRITAIN / THE MIDDLE EAST] Sarikamis 1 Haziran [13]39 senesi istihbârât hülâsalari. Mahrem ve hizmete mahsûs No. 5. [i.e., Intelligence extracts of the Sarikamis Front in 1339 (1923). Restricted No. 5)

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Sark Cehbesi Kumandanligi Erkân-i Harbiye Istihbârât Subesi, Sark Cebhesi Matbaasi [i.e., Eastern Front Printing House], [Erzurum or Kars], AH 1339 [AD 1923].
Original wrappers. Foolscap 8vo. (18 x 10,5 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 64 p. Chippings on the spine, an official stamp on the front face. Overall, a very good copy.
First and only edition of this restricted pamphlet for military use including the details of military, political, and social intelligence of the Eastern Front in WW1 in the post-war period in 1923, printed as the fifth booklet of the Restricted Series. The pamphlet contains valuable information about the October Revolution and the situation in Soviet Russia in 1923, British policy and Russian-English relations, Baku State, The Kars Republic, Azerbaijan’s policy, conditions of the foreign trade ships, the statue of the Turkish Straits, Baku Communist Cooperatives and the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and communist activities in Istanbul, Baku, Tbilisi.

HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE REGION: The Caucasus campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dictatorship, and the British Empire, as part of the Middle Eastern theatre during World War I. The Caucasus campaign extended from the South Caucasus to the Armenian Highlands region, reaching as far as Trabzon, Bitlis, Mush, and Van. Naval engagements in the Black Sea accompanied land warfare.

The Russian military campaign started on 1 November 1914 with the Russian invasion of Turkish Armenia. In the summer of 1914, Armenian volunteer units were established under the Russian armed forces. The Ottomans had one army based in the region, the 3rd Army. In 1916 they sent reinforcements and formed the 2nd Army. At the beginning of the conflict, the combined forces of the Ottomans ranged from 100,000 to 190,000 men.

After the war, The Georgian-Armenian War of 1918 soon followed over the Javakheti and Lori provinces, with Armenia gaining the latter. Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918-1920) over Karabakh and Nakhichevan, with Armenia losing both due to Soviet intervention in favor of the anti-west Turkish National Movement. The Turkish-Armenian War of 1920 resulted in the occupation/depopulation of even more Armenian land.

Sovietization of Caucasus: The Soviet 11th Red Army entered Yerevan in 1920. On April 27, 1920, the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) received a notice that the Soviet army was about to cross the northern border and invade the ADR. In the west, there was a war over Karabakh with Armenia; in the east, the local Azeri communists were rebelling against the government; and to the north, the Russian Red Army was steadily moving southward having defeated Denikin's White Russian forces. ADR officially surrendered to the Soviets, but many generals and local Azeri militias kept resisting the advance of the Soviet forces and it took a while for the Soviets to stabilize the newly proclaimed Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. On December 4, 1920, the First Republic of Armenia government effectively surrendered. On December 5, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom) mostly Armenians from mountainous Karabakh entered the city. On December 6, Felix Dzerzhinsky's dreaded secret police, Cheka entered Yerevan, thus effectively ending all existence of the ADR. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, under the leadership of Aleksandr Miasnikyan. On February 25, 1921, the Soviet destruction of the Democratic Republic of Georgia happened. On October 23, 1921, the end of hostilities came with the Treaty of Kars. It was a successor treaty to the earlier Treaty of Moscow of March 1921 and was ratified in Yerevan on September 11, 1922. The Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Kars, which was a treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which had declared Turkey a republic in 1923, and representatives of Bolshevist Russia, Soviet Armenia, Soviet Azerbaijan, and Soviet Georgia (all these states formed part of the Soviet Union after the December 1922 Union Treaty) in 1921. (Wikipedia).

Not in Özege, we can’t trace in OCLC as of 2023 September; overall, an extremely rare pamphlet is both in scarce institutional holdings and market rarity.