"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [ظ‎‎٩‎١] (٥٤٠/١٨٧)

144 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
irregular forces, under British leaders, from the Kurds and
other warlike tribes inhabiting the areas along the probable
Turkish lines of advance. The bad weather hindered the des
patch of reinforcements from Mesopotamia, but during the
month General Dunsterville was joined at Hamadan by a
total of 35 British officers and 40 British other ranks for duty
with his Mission, by one squadron 14th Hussars and three
armoured cars of the 6 th Light Armoured Motor Battery.
As the month passed, the enemy’s intentions became
clearer. It was learnt that in March a military mission under
Nuri Pasha (brother of Enver) had left Turkey for the
Caucasus to organise there, with German support, a force of
local Mahomedans* to fight the Armenians and Bolsheviks
and gradually to occupy Persian Azerbaijan. This latter
movement was ostensibly to cover the enemy operations in
the Caucasus, but was actually intended as a first step towards
penetration into Persia. On the 15th April the Turks occupied
Batum, whence at this time their line ran roughly south-
westward via Ardahan and east of Sarikamish to a point
near Lake Van. On this front, where their force was estimated
at about six divisions with a total strength of some 25,000
combatants, the only opposition to their advance was from
the Armenians who were unlikely to be able to withstand
them for long. Later in the month the Turks captured Kars,
and small bodies of their troops were reported as having
entered Persian Azerbaijan in a movement evidently con
verging on Tabriz from the north-west, west and south-west.
A Turkish division was said to be advancing against Urmia
from the northward, in co-operation with a force of some
2,500 troops detached from the Turkish Sixth Army in
Mesopotamia via Ruwandiz ; and in this area a body of
Assyrians and other Christiansf was said to be offering a
stubborn resistance to the Turkish advance. In their advance
on Persian Azerbaijan via Urmia, the Turks were trying
to gain the co-operation of the Kurds and other warlike
tribes in this area, i.e., the same elements which General
Dunsterville was reckoning on to oppose the Turkish advance.
The situation in Trans-Caucasia was chaotic. The Federal
Government, which still kept nominal control, declared the
* This was the so-called “ Islam Army,” of which reports began to reach us
in May.
f The generic term of ‘Jelus,' applying to the various Christian tribes
operating in this area, was used in the reports of the period ; and this nomen
clature will be followed in the ensuing narrative.