War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia
and the lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates. The basin of the Kura is of the utmost importance to Russia, as it is the railway and oil centre of the whole Caucasus; while Mesopotamia is the region where the Bagdad railway is to end, and the scene of the great future development of European enterprise. The occupation of Azairbijan by Turkey would therefore threaten the industrial heart of the Caucasus, while its occupation by Russia would open the road to Mesopotamia, and forge the link between the British and Russian Empires in Asia, so as to surround the Central Powers and Turkey on the East. Azairbijan could be occupied by the Turks coming in from the West by the South Armenian plateau. Between the basins of Lake Van and Lake Urumiah there is no natural obstruction, for the ranges of Taurus and Anti-Taurus here run East and West, parallel with each other; so that once a Turkish force is in Van, it can easily drop down to Khoy, by the valley of the Kotur Chai. In the same way a Russian occupation of the road-centre at Khoy, and of the Dilman and Urumiah plains, would make the whole Turkish position upon the South Armenian plateau insecure. Thus we see that the outer wing of the front in Persia was of great importance to the main Russian and Turkish positions.
When on October 31st, 1914, the war between the Central Powers and the Allies spread to the Asiatic fronts, the Caucasus army, which had been already mobilized, took the initiative at once. The 2nd and 3rd Army Corps had been previously transferred to the European front, leaving only the 1st and the 4th Caucasian Army Corps, and some frontier guards,
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