Between 1914 and 15 December 22, 60 thousand soldiers froze to death in the Allahuekber Mountains near Sarıkamış to take back Kars from the Russians.
Enver Pasha, the deputy commander-in-chief, had aimed to hit the Russians from a place they never expected, from Allahuekber mountains and to bring Kars back to the homeland.
The temperature dropped to 2 degrees below zero in the passages of the Allahuekber Mountains at an altitude of 3-30 thousand altitudes. Most of the Turkish soldiers came from the desert and wore summer uniforms.
Staff Officer Şerif Bey describes the situation of our soldiers in the freezing cold in Sarıkamış in his book called “Sarıkamış”:
“A soldier crouching in the snow by the roadside, embracing a pile of snow with his arms, was gnawing with his teeth, trembling, wailing. I wanted to lift and send it to the road. He never saw me. the poor freaked out. Thus, among those cursed glaciers, we left perhaps more than ten thousand people under the snow in one day and passed ”.
Duke Alexandrovich Pietrovic, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Caucasian Army, described what he saw in Sarıkamış as follows:
“9 heroes kneeling in the first row. They took aim with their mausoleums, they were about to hang on the trigger, but could not be hanged… In the second row, there are those carrying ammunition, they took a handful of chests that seem to want to take their ambitions from the universe. They are so rigid… And at the right, Major Nihat. Standing tall, his head open, his hair dyed white, eyes opposite… I could not surrender the last Turkish detachment in the Allahuekber Mountains. They had surrendered to their God long before us. "
Allahuekber mountains were surpassed with 37 thousand martyrs and Sarıkamış was besieged. The siege operation of Sarıkamış ended on January 5, 1915, due to extreme cold and hunger, before the target could be captured.
The Ottoman Army lost 60 thousand martyrs in these mountains, 78 thousand of whom were frozen. Russian troops also lost 32 thousand soldiers in these battles.
SARIKAMIS DRAMA
During the Sarıkamış operation in 14194490125931914, tens of thousands of soldiers who froze to death in the Allahu Akbar mountains were not forgotten. Martyrs were commemorated with ceremonies in Sarıkamış district of Kars.
Within the framework of the ceremonies, a march was held in Kızılçubuk village with the slogan "Turkey is Marching to its Martyrs".
The march, attended by approximately 81 thousand people from 3 provinces, was successfully completed despite the adverse weather conditions.
The marchers passed through the foothills of the Allahu Akbar Mountains, traveled approximately 7 kilometers, and reached the Sarıkamış Martyrs' Cemetery. In the speeches made at the ceremony held here, it was emphasized that the martyrs who gave their lives for the sake of the country will always be kept alive in our hearts.
In 1914, when it was decided to attack the Russians in order to save the eastern provinces, the target of the operation was determined as Sarıkamış. The objectives were achieved in the first two days of the operation, which started on December 22, 1914.
The Turkish army under the command of Enver Pasha attacked on the Soğanlı Mountains on 25 December. However, thousands of Turkish soldiers who tried to cross the impassable snowy mountains were martyred by succumbing to the cold.
OPERATION SARIKAMIS
Operation Sarıkamış A military operation that ended in disaster in the First World War. Ottoman Empire war; Enver Pasha, in the first place, with the aim of taking back our eastern provinces such as Kars, Sarıkamış and Ardahan, which have been under Russian occupation since 1878, to help the Germans who are at war with the Russians in Eastern Europe, to open the gates of the Turkish provinces in the Caucasus and Central-Asia with a victory to be won. It was introduced by the Unionists who were in power.
The Turkish flag was hoisted and two German battleships called Yavuz and Midilli bombarded the Russian ports in the Black Sea. In response, Russia attacked Turkey on October 30, 1914. The Russian-Caucasian army advanced as far as Pasinler with its seven-armed attack from the Black Sea over the border on Mount Ararat. The offensive of the Russian army was stopped in Köprüköy. The third army defeated the Russian army in the Battle of Köprüköy, which took place on 3-9 November 1914. The Third Army Commander did not follow the enemy in the heat, taking into account the seasonal conditions, the inadequacy of the soldier's clothing, especially the hood, and the scarcity of cannon and cavalry horses. The Minister of War (Minister of National Defense) Enver Pasha, who received the reports of the Köprüköy Pitched Battle and was promoted from the lieutenant colonel to the pasha, came to Erzurum with the German staff and generals. Enver Pasha had inspected one battalion in Erzurum and Köprüköy; however, he did not have enough information about all the army units. Moreover, the commander of the army, Hasan İzzet Pasha, dismissed him from his duty and decided to attack, in response to the advice of the army commander, Hasan İzzet Pasha, that no operation could be carried out in this season and that the attack should be left until the spring. Enver Pasha, who took on the task of the Third Army Command, gave the order to attack the troops on 18 December 1914.
Most of the troops participating in the attack, especially those withdrawn from Arabia and dispatched from Southeastern Anatolia, were accustomed to the hot climate and were unprepared for the winter conditions in terms of their equipment. Three corps of the Third Army (9th, 10th, 11th Corps) started the Great Sarıkamış Encirclement and Siege (Ihâta) Operation on 24 December 1914 in a cold of -39 degrees. In addition, semi-official Turkish gangs engaged in guerrilla warfare also moved to Ardahan. Some troops from the Third Army managed to reach Sarıkamış on the night of 24-25 December. However, while crossing the Allahu Akbar Mountains, they suffered many casualties and losses, both in quantity and in terms of their current weapons, due to severe difficulties and winter conditions. The Russian corps in Sarıkamış panicked when a column of Mehmetçiks crossing the Allahü Ekber Mountains reached Selim Station in the east of Sarıkamış and destroyed the railway. Unofficial Turkish gangs also entered Ardahan at the beginning of 1915. Russian Caucasian Army Commander-in-Chief, on the progress of the Third Army; By radio-telegraph on 2-3 January 1915, he appealed to his allies, France and England, several times a day, pleadingly:
“The cold and winter, which stops phone calls, cannot prevent the Turkish army. If the advance of the Turkish armies cannot be stopped by opening a second front, the rich Baku oil will fall into the hands of the Ottoman-German alliance and the road to India will be open to them!” was sending the message.
Winter intensified on the night of 3-4 January 1915. The snow that fell with the storm blocked the roads and destroyed the tents. Then, when the freezing cold came, 150 thousand of the army of 000 60 people died as a result of frostbite, exactly 78 thousand soldiers were martyred with diseases such as dysentery and typhoid. Enver Pasha, who entered Sarıkamış Station, abandoned the Third Army in the face of this disaster and returned to Istanbul. In this operation, the Russians suffered 32 000 casualties.
Sarikamis Operation; It was a successful plan that aimed to fall behind the enemy forces with a siege operation. However, it failed because time was not a factor of the strategy, and the forces were not equipped to carry out such an operation.
The army's unpreparedness for winter conditions and the lack of supply and subsistence services due to adverse climatic conditions led to starvation in the continents, the destruction of animals, and thus the dispersal of the troops. The night attack orders given unconsciously by Enver Pasha increased the losses even more.050120166
At the end of the Sarıkamış Operation, the gates of Eastern Anatolia were opened to the Russians. On May 13, 1915, the Russian forces, with which the Armenians cooperated, first entered Vana, then Muş and Bitlise. In return for the great service Armenians rendered to the Russians during the war, the governorships of these provinces were given to the Armenians. After the war, at the end of the Armenian-Russian cooperation, a terrible genocide was attempted against the people of the region. The number of children, women, young and old Turks who were transported to the middle of Lake Van by boats and killed or spilled into the water is very high, although it has not been determined definitively. In fact, during this war, Armenian Komitaci prepared to revolt almost everywhere and accumulated warehouses of weapons and ammunition in many places. With this weapon, equipment and support, they massacred and devastated Eastern Anatolia.
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