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Rüştü Bey Zihni Bey | strength1 = 9,000 | strength2 = ~10-13,000 | casualties1 = Unknown | casualties2 = 3,500 dead alone from May 22 to May 26〔 | notes = | campaignbox = }} The Battle of Sardarabad ((アルメニア語:Սարդարապատի ճակատամարտ), ''Sardarapati č̣akatamart''; (トルコ語:Serdarabad Muharebesi))〔 Uras, Esat. ''(Tarihte Ermeniler ve Ermeni Meselesi'' (''The Armenians in History and the Armenian Question )''). Belge Yayınları, 1976, p. LXVII.〕 was a battle of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I that took place near Sardarabad (modern-day Armavir), Armenia from May 21–29, 1918. Sardarabad was only 40 kilometers west of the city of Yerevan. The battle is currently seen as not only stopping the Ottoman advance into the rest of Armenia but also preventing the complete destruction of the Armenian nation. In the words of Christopher J. Walker, had the Armenians lost this battle, "it is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term." ==Background== In January 1918, two months after the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, the Sovnarkom, the highest government authority under the Bolshevik system, issued a decree which called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Caucasus Front. This move threw the Armenian leadership in the Transcaucasia into a panic, since it removed from the region the only force capable of protecting the Armenian people from the Ottoman Empire, which had effectively exterminated its Armenian population through systematic massacres and deportations. The Armenians refused to recognize the authority of the Bolsheviks and attempted to form military units to defend the front as the Ottoman armies prepared to expand eastward. The Armenians attempted to stall the Ottoman advance as they created a small Armenian army to take up the positions the Russians had abandoned.〔 Poidebard, Antoine. "Rôle militaire des Arméniens sur le front du Caucase après la defection de l'armée russe (décembre 1917-novembre 1918)." ''Revue des Études Arméniennes'' 1, pt. 2 (1920): pp. 143-161.〕 General Tovmas Nazarbekian was selected as its commanding officer and Drastamat Kanayan was appointed as civilian commissar.〔Hovannisian. ''Armenia on the Road to Independence'', p. 114.〕 But in May 1918, just two months after the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded with the Russian SFSR, elements of the Ottoman Third Army crossed into Eastern Armenia and attacked Alexandropol (modern-day Gyumri). The Ottoman Army intended to crush Armenia and seize Russian Transcaucasia and the oil wells of Baku. The German government, the Ottoman Empire's ally, objected to this attack and refused to help the Ottoman Army in the operation. At this time, only a small area of historical Armenian territory which used to be a part of the Russian Empire remained unconquered by the Ottoman Empire, and into that area hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees had fled after the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Forces began a three-pronged attack in an attempt to finally overwhelm and conquer the rest of Armenia. When Alexandropol fell, the Ottoman Army moved into the former territory of the Yerevan ''guberniia'' – the heart of Armenia.〔Hovannisian. ''Armenia on the Road to Independence'', pp. 174-176.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Sardarabad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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