Persian Campaign

Warbox
conflict=Persian Campaign
partof=Middle Eastern theatre (World War I)


caption=
date= December 1914 - March, 1916
place= Persia
result=Russian victory
combatant1=flag|Ottoman Empire|size=25px
combatant2=flag|Russian Empire|size=25px
commander1= Enver Pasha
Halil Bey
commander2= Nikolai Yudenich
General Myshlaevsky
General Chernozubov
General Nazarbekov
strength1=•2nd Army
strength2=•Russian Caucasus Army
•Detachment Armenian volunteer units
casualties1=
casualties2=
notes=

The Persian Campaign, also known as Invasion of Persia, was a series of engagements that took place in northern and western Persia as an extension of the Caucasus Campaign.

Persia was neutral in World War I, but was affected by the rivalry between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Persia had significant oil reserves, and was strategically situated between Afghanistan and the warring Ottoman, Russian, and British Empires.

Background

With the beginning of the war, Russians maintained forces in northern Persia. Contact was limited to skirmishes on the border of northern Persia. Kurdish bands plundered and murdered the Christian populationFact|date=June 2008 – that is Armenians and AssyriansFact|date=June 2008. The presence of Russian cavalry units kept them quiet. cite book
last = Hinterhoff
first = Eugene
author link =
title =Persia: The Stepping Stone To India. Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of World War I, vol iv
publisher = Marshall Cavendish Corporation
date =1984
location =New York
pages = pp.1153-1157
isbn = 0-86307-181-3]

Initial Ottoman operations

Occupation of Tabriz

However, at the height of the battle of Sarikamish, in December, Myshlaevsky ordered withdrawal from Persia. As a result, the regular Turkish Army reinforced with Turkish volunteers entered Tabriz on January 14. During their occupation in Persia, Ottoman forces proceeded to massacre Christians.

Yudenich immediately began to plan to re-take the area. After brief fighting on January 26-28 in Sufian area, General Chernozubov entered Tabriz on January 30.

Battle of Diliman, April 1915

General Nazarbekov managed to push Halil Pasha regulars towards Başkale after the Battle of Diliman, securing the situation.

Enver's ambitions, June-July 1915

As a result of his initial successes, Enver Pasha began planning a Pan-Turkic and Pan Islamic uprising against the Russian empire, entrusting command of this to his uncle Halil Bey.

As the Turks were organizing, Yudenich planned an attack to limit the Ottomans at Moush and Manzikert. He also planned to outflank from Beyazit and Persian Azerbaijan towards Van.

In April, Turks under Halil Bey moved towards Tabriz, but was defeated by Chernozubov. Simultaneously, Russians got word of the resistance of the Armenian population of Van. When word got to Yudenich, he sent a brigade of Trans-Baikal Cossacks under General Trukhin and some Armenian volunteers towards Van. With Van secure, fighting shifted farther west for the rest of the summer.

German espionage

Of a more serious threat were German espionage attempts in Persia. The Germans hoped to free Persia from British and Russian influence, and to further create a wedge between Russia and the British, eventually leading to an invasion of British India by locally organized armies. Wilhelm Wassmuss and Count Kaunitz were at the head of this operation.

Wilhelm Wassmuss, known as the "German Lawrence", was a German consular official in Persia who loved the desert, and wore the flowing robes of a desert tribesman He persuaded his superiors in Constantinople that he could lead Persian tribes in a revolt against Britain. In 1915 he conferred with local chiefs and distributed pamphlets urging revolt. He was arrested by a local chief, but managed to escape from British custody.

This plan was conducted in conjunction with the Turks. They hoped to incite a revolt through pro-German members of the Persian government in conjunction of invasion of Turkish troops towards Kermanshah and Hamadan.

Premature coup crushed

The premature coup was crushed in Tehran as Ahmad Shah Qajar took refuge in the Russian legation, and a sizable Russian force arrived to Tehran under Baratov after they landed in Bandar-e Pahlavi in November of that year.

The pro-German coup members of the Majles fled to Kirmanshah and Qom without fighting. In December, Baratov began to move on Qoms and Hamadan, to clear German sympathizers and Turkish troops. Both cities fell in the same month.

Count Kaunitz disappeared without a trace, either killing himself or being a victim of assassination by disenchanted coup members. Kirmanshah was taken on February 16, 1916, and by March 1 of that year operations were complete.

References

ee also

* Military history of Iran
* General Lionel Dunsterville of Dunsterforce
* Russo-Persian Wars
* Turko-Persian War
* Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
* Imperialism in Asia
* Morgan Shuster

References

* "Operations in Persia 1914-1919" by Brigadier-General F J Moberly (Printed 1929 but classed 'Confidential'; 1987 reprint, HMSO) ISBN 0 11 290453 X