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The Battle of Sarikamish ((アルメニア語:Սարիղամիշի ճակատամարտ) (''Sarighamishi chakatamart''), (ロシア語:Сражение при Сарыкамыше); (トルコ語:Sarıkamış Harekatı)) was an engagement between the Russian and Ottoman empires during World War I. It took place from December 22, 1914 to January 17, 1915 as part of the Caucasus Campaign. The outcome was a Russian victory. The Ottomans employed a strategy which demanded that their troops be highly mobile and to arrive at specified objectives at precise times. This approach was based both on German and Napoleonic tactics.〔 The Ottoman troops, ill-prepared for winter conditions, suffered major casualties in the Allahuekber Mountains.〔 Afterward, Ottoman leader Enver Pasha publicly blamed his defeat on Armenians and the battle was a prelude to the Armenian Genocide. ==Background== Russia viewed the Caucasus front as secondary to the Eastern Front and the Eastern Front enjoyed the major share of Russian resources. Russia had taken the fortress of Kars from the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877, since when it was incorporated into the militarily administered Kars Oblast, and now feared a Caucasus Campaign aimed at retaking Kars and the port of Batum. Kars Oblast was of immense strategic and symbolic importance to the Russian Empire, being seen and administered as a march principality that would spearhead further Russian expansion against the Muslim Ottomans. The Christian Orthodox population settled in Kars Oblast by the Russian government - including Georgians, Caucasus Greeks, and Christian Orthodox as well as non-Orthodox Armenians - had often previously fought in or collaborated with the Russian army to take the province from the Ottomans as a means of achieving their ambitions to expand Christian Orthodox territory at the expense of the Muslim Ottomans on the back of the Russian imperial enterprise.〔Coene, Frederik, 'The Caucasus - An Introduction', (2011)〕 The Russian army now at Sarikamish included many of these same communities alongside ethnic Russians among both the soldier and officer ranks, and in particular senior Russian army officers of Armenian extraction. The Ottoman generalship and organization were negligible compared to the Russians.〔A. F. Pollard. ''A Short History Of The Great War''. chapter VI: The first winter of the war.〕 A Caucasus Campaign would have a distracting effect on Russian forces. The plan found sympathy with German advisors in that a success in this region would mean a diversion of Russian forces to this front from the Polish and Galician fronts.〔Eugene Hinterhoff, ''The Campaign in Armenia. Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I'', vol ii, pp. 499-503.〕 Germany supplied resources and the Ottoman 3rd Army was used in the battle.〔 The immediate strategic goal of the Caucasus Campaign was to retake Artvin, Ardahan, Kars, and the port of Batum. As a longer term goal, head of the Ottoman war ministry İsmail Enver hoped a success would facilitate opening the route to Tbilisi and beyond, with a revolt of Caucasian Muslims.〔 Another Turkish—or rather German—strategic goal was to cut Russian access to its hydrocarbon resources around the Caspian Sea.〔The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920, v.28, p. 403.〕 The Anglo-Persian Oil Company had exclusive rights to work petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Ghilan, Mazendaran, Asdrabad and Khorasan.〔 In 1914, before the war, the British government had contracts with the company for the supply of fuel oil for the navy.〔 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 Sarikamish」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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