Karsoblast Карсская область | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
 Administrative map of the Karsoblast | |
| Coordinates:40°36′25″N43°05′35″E / 40.6069°N 43.0931°E /40.6069; 43.0931 | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Viceroyalty | Caucasus |
| Established | 1878 |
| Treaty of Brest-Litovsk | 3 March 1918 |
| Capital | Kars |
| Area | |
• Total | 18,739.50 km2 (7,235.36 sq mi) |
| Population (1916) | |
• Total | 364,214 |
| • Density | 19.4356/km2 (50.3381/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 12.30% |
| • Rural | 87.70% |
TheKarsoblast[b] was a province (oblast) of theCaucasus Viceroyalty of theRussian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city ofKars, which later became part ofTurkey. Theoblast bordered theOttoman Empire to the west, theBatum Oblast (in 1883–1903 part of theKutaisi Governorate) to the north, theTiflis Governorate to the northeast, and theErivan Governorate to the east. The Karsoblast included parts of the contemporary provinces ofKars,Ardahan, andErzurum Province of Turkey, and theAmasia Community of theShirak Province ofArmenia.[1]
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The Karsoblast was a province established after the region's annexation into the Russian Empire through theTreaty of San Stefano in 1878, following thedefeat of theOttoman Empire and the dissolution of the latter'sKars,Childir andErzurumStates.[2][3]
With the incorporation of the region into Russian Empire, between 1879–1882 more than 110,000 people from the Karsoblast and 30,000 from the Batumoblast migrated to the new borders of the Ottoman Empire,[4] about 80% were Muslim.[5] In their stead,Christian settlers, mostly consisting ofArmenians,Greeks andRussians,[2] migrated from the Ottoman Empire and settled throughout the province. The Armenians, who eventually came to form the largest ethnic group in the region, were largely composed of immigrants from theSix Vilayets escaping persecution in the Ottoman Empire.
During theFirst World War, the Karsoblast became the site ofintense battles between theRussian Caucasus Army supplemented byArmenian volunteer units and theOttoman Third Army, the latter of whom was successful inbriefly occupying Ardahan on 25 December 1914 before they were dislodged in early January 1915.
On 3 March 1918, in the aftermath of theOctober Revolution theRussian SFSR ceded the entire Karsoblast through theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk to the Ottoman Empire, who had been unreconciled with its loss of the territory since 1878. Despite the ineffectual resistance of theTranscaucasian Democratic Federative Republic which had initially rejected the aforementioned treaty, the Ottoman Third Army was successful in occupying the Karsoblast and expelling its more than 100,000 Armenian inhabitants.[6]
The OttomanNinth Army under the command ofYakub Shevki Pasha, the occupying force of the district by the time of theMudros Armistice, were permitted to winter in Kars until early 1919, after which on 7 January 1919 Major GeneralG.T. Forestier-Walker ordered their complete withdrawal to the pre-1914 Ottoman-frontier. Intended to hinder the westward expansion of the fledglingArmenian andGeorgian republics into the Karsoblast, Yukub Shevki backed the emergence of the short-livedSouth-West Caucasus Republic with moral support, also furnishing it with weapons, ammunition and instructors.[7]
The South-West Caucasus Republic administered the entire Karsoblast and neighboring formerly occupied districts for three months before provoking British intervention by order of GeneralG.F. Milne, leading to its capitulation byArmenian andBritish forces on 10 April 1919.[8][9] Consequently, the Karsoblast largely came under the Armenian civil governorship of Stepan Korganian who wasted no time in facilitating the repatriation of the region's exiled refugees.[10]
Despite the apparent defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish agitators were reported byArmenian intelligence to have been freely roaming the countryside of Kars encouraging sedition among the Muslim villages, culminating in a series ofanti-Armenian uprisings in July 1919.[11]
The Karsoblast for the third time in six years saw invading Turkish troops, this time under the command of GeneralKâzım Karabekir in September 1920 during theTurkish-Armenian War. The disastrous war for Armenia resulted in the permanent expulsion of the region's ethnic Armenian population, many who inexorably remained befalling massacre, resulting in the region joining theRepublic of Turkey through theTreaty of Alexandropol on 3 December 1920. Turkey's annexation of Kars and the adjacentSurmalu uezd was confirmed in the treaties ofKars andMoscow in 1921, by virtue of the newSoviet regime in Armenia.[12]
After Turkey's annexation of the region, Soviet diplomatGeorgy Chicherin sent a letter to the Turkish ambassador to theRSFSR,Ali Fuat Cebesoy, complaining of the violence and expulsion againstRussians in Kars by Turkish authorities. For example, in the village of Novo-Mikhailovka (present-dayDikme [tr]), the Russian population was placed into "stables and barns" and replaced by 2,000Turkish settlers fromAnatolia.[13]
The districts (okrugs) of the Karsoblast in 1917 were as follows:[14]
| Name | Administrative centre | Population | Area | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1897[15] | 1916[16] | 1897 | 1916 | |||
| Ardahan okrug (Ардаганский округ) | Ardagan (Ardahan) | 4,142 | 3,167 | 65,763 | 89,036 | 4,917.90square versts (5,596.88 km2; 2,160.97 sq mi) |
| Kagizman okrug (Кагызманский округ) | Kagyzman (Kağızman) | 10,518 | 11,145 | 59,230 | 83,208 | 3,843.17square versts (4,373.77 km2; 1,688.72 sq mi) |
| Kars okrug (Карсский округ) | Kars | 20,805 | 30,514 | 134,142 | 191,970 | 5,083.81square versts (5,785.69 km2; 2,233.87 sq mi) |
| Olti okrug (Ольтинский округ) | Olty (Oltu) | 2,373 | 3,258 | 31,519 | 40,091[c] | 2,621.27square versts (2,983.17 km2; 1,151.81 sq mi) |
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1871 | 67,128 | — |
| 1872 | 69,996 | +4.27% |
| 1876 | 78,650 | +2.96% |
| 1880 | 114,282 | +9.79% |
| 1882 | 162,979 | +19.42% |
| 1886 | 174,044 | +1.66% |
| 1892 | 200,868 | +2.42% |
| 1893 | 206,765 | +2.94% |
| 1897 | 290,654 | +8.89% |
| 1899 | 273,124 | −3.06% |
| 1902 | 297,125 | +2.85% |
| 1903 | 304,193 | +2.38% |
| 1908 | 310,155 | +0.39% |
| 1910 | 368,057 | +8.94% |
| 1912 | 371,903 | +0.52% |
| 1913 | 382,745 | +2.92% |
| 1914 | 391,213 | +2.21% |
| 1915 | 255,461 | −34.70% |
| 1916 | 364,214 | +42.57% |
| For 1897, see The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897. For 1903–1916, seeCaucasian Calendar publications for years 1904–1917. | ||
| Ethnic group | Ardаhan | Kagizman | Kars | Olti | TOTAL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Turkish | 20,351 | 46.63 | 2,652 | 7.76 | 7,280 | 9.46 | 11,540 | 59.71 | 41,823 | 24.03 |
| Armenian | 262 | 0.60 | 12,544 | 36.72 | 22,544 | 29.31 | 1,734 | 8.97 | 37,084 | 21.31 |
| Kurd | 6,974 | 15.98 | 12,003 | 35.14 | 5,124 | 6.66 | 2,333 | 12.07 | 26,434 | 15.19 |
| Karapapakh | 6,229 | 14.27 | 593 | 1.74 | 17,308 | 22.50 | 4 | 0.02 | 24,134 | 13.87 |
| Greek | 5,617 | 12.87 | 4,880 | 14.29 | 11,002 | 14.30 | 2,026 | 10.48 | 23,525 | 13.52 |
| Russian | 1,036 | 2.37 | 0 | 0.00 | 9,657 | 12.56 | 1 | 0.06 | 10,695 | 6.14 |
| Turkmen | 3,128 | 7.17 | 1,426 | 4.17 | 2,749 | 3.57 | 1,591 | 8.23 | 8,893 | 5.11 |
| Ossetian | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 418 | 0.54 | 12 | 0.06 | 430 | 0.25 |
| Assyrian | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 321 | 0.42 | 0 | 0.00 | 321 | 0.18 |
| Estonian | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 280 | 0.36 | 0 | 0.00 | 280 | 0.16 |
| Lezgin | 0 | 0.00 | 41 | 0.12 | 155 | 0.20 | 0 | 0.00 | 196 | 0.11 |
| Persian | 9 | 0.02 | 9 | 0.03 | 60 | 0.08 | 3 | 0.02 | 81 | 0.05 |
| Roma | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 9 | 0.01 | 69 | 0.36 | 78 | 0.05 |
| Adjarian | 21 | 0.05 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 21 | 0.01 |
| Abkhazian | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 12 | 0.06 | 12 | 0.01 |
| Georgian | 9 | 0.02 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 9 | 0.01 |
| Polish | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 7 | 0.01 | 0 | 0.00 | 7 | 0.00 |
| Bulgarian | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 0.01 | 1 | 0.01 | 5 | 0.00 |
| Circassian | 5 | 0.01 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 5 | 0.00 |
| Kabardian | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Other | 0 | 0.00 | 10 | 0.03 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 10 | 0.01 |
| TOTAL | 43,643 | 100.00 | 34,158 | 100.00 | 76,917 | 100.00 | 19,326 | 100.00 | 174,044 | 100.00 |
In 1892, the population of Karsoblast was estimated as 200,868. The ethnic composition was reported as follows:[2]
| Ethnic group | Number | % |
|---|---|---|
| Turk[d] | 48,208 | 24 |
| Armenian | 43,187 | 21.5 |
| Kurd | 30,130 | 15 |
| Karapapakh | 29,126 | 14 |
| Greek | 27,117 | 13.5 |
| Russian[e] | 14,061 | 7 |
| AleviKarapapakh[f] | 10,043 | 5 |
| Faith | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| Islam | 53 |
| ↳Sunni | 46 |
| ↳Shia | 7 |
| Armenian Apostolic | 21 |
| Eastern Orthodoxy | 14 |
| Alevism | 5 |
| Spiritual Christianity[g] | 5 |
| Yazidism | 1.25 |
| Other Christian churches | 0.75 |
According to theRussian Empire Census, the Karsoblast had a population of 290,654 on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 160,571 men and 130,083 women. This number may imply that the 200,868 estimate for 1892 given by Brockhaus is too low, or that a large-scale migration from other provinces of the empire took place in between:[18]
| Language | Native speakers | % |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian | 73,406 | 25.26 |
| Turkish | 63,547 | 21.86 |
| Kurdish | 42,968 | 14.78 |
| Greek | 32,593 | 11.21 |
| Karapapakh | 29,879 | 10.28 |
| Russian | 22,327 | 7.68 |
| Turkmen | 8,442 | 2.90 |
| Ukrainian | 5,279 | 1.82 |
| Polish | 3,243 | 1.12 |
| Tatar[h] | 2,347 | 0.81 |
| Jewish | 1,138 | 0.39 |
| Lithuanian | 892 | 0.31 |
| Assyrian | 585 | 0.20 |
| Persian | 568 | 0.20 |
| Georgian | 526 | 0.18 |
| Ossetian | 520 | 0.18 |
| Estonian | 455 | 0.16 |
| German | 430 | 0.15 |
| Avar-Andean | 328 | 0.11 |
| Belarusian | 250 | 0.09 |
| Bashkir | 207 | 0.07 |
| Dargin | 120 | 0.04 |
| Other | 604 | 0.21 |
| TOTAL | 290,654 | 100.00 |
The 30,000 excess population of male over females was mainly attributed to the European language speakers. Among the 27,856 speakers of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, 19,910 men and 7,946 women were recorded. The Polish, and Lithuanian speakers were almost exclusively (99%) male as well; Germans and Jews, 80–90% males. This preponderance of males in the European language speakers (reported to a lesser extent in neighbouring governorates as well) may indicate presence of a large numbers of soldiers or exiled persons in the region. This assumption supported by the fact that 28,875 or 9.9% of the population were military or administrative personnel.[21]
| Faith | Male | Female | Both | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | |||
| Muslim | 76,521 | 69,331 | 145,852 | 50.18 |
| Armenian Apostolic | 37,726 | 33,397 | 71,123 | 24.47 |
| Eastern Orthodox | 31,115 | 18,180 | 49,295 | 16.96 |
| Old Believer | 6,069 | 6,351 | 12,420 | 4.27 |
| Roman Catholic | 4,286 | 87 | 4,373 | 1.50 |
| Armenian Catholic | 1,065 | 779 | 1,844 | 0.63 |
| Judaism | 1,114 | 90 | 1,204 | 0.41 |
| Lutheran | 854 | 323 | 1,177 | 0.40 |
| Reformed | 15 | 8 | 23 | 0.01 |
| Baptist | 7 | 1 | 8 | 0.00 |
| Other Christian denomination | 9 | 0 | 9 | 0.00 |
| Other non-Christian denomination | 1,790 | 1,536 | 3,326 | 1.14 |
| TOTAL | 160,571 | 130,083 | 290,654 | 100.00 |
According to the 1917 publication ofKavkazskiy kalendar, the Karsoblast had a population of 364,214 on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 185,895 men and 178,319 women, 308,400 of whom were the permanent population, and 55,814 were temporary residents:[14]
| Nationality | Urban | Rural | TOTAL[i] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Armenians | 36,268 | 80.96 | 81,949 | 25.66 | 118,217 | 32.46 |
| Sunni Muslims[j] | 4,055 | 9.05 | 79,249 | 24.81 | 83,304 | 22.87 |
| Kurds | 66 | 0.15 | 49,686 | 15.56 | 49,752 | 13.66 |
| Roma | 361 | 0.81 | 37,784 | 11.83 | 38,145 | 10.47 |
| Shia Muslims[k] | 322 | 0.72 | 19,122 | 5.99 | 19,444 | 5.34 |
| Russians | 1,800 | 4.02 | 17,197 | 5.38 | 18,997 | 5.22 |
| Yazidis | 0 | 0.00 | 17,698 | 5.54 | 17,698 | 4.86 |
| Asiatic Christian | 1,822 | 4.07 | 14,965 | 4.69 | 16,787 | 4.61 |
| North Caucasians | 0 | 0.00 | 909 | 0.28 | 909 | 0.28 |
| Other Europeans | 55 | 0.12 | 741 | 0.23 | 796 | 0.22 |
| Georgians | 19 | 0.04 | 117 | 0.04 | 136 | 0.04 |
| Jews | 29 | 0.06 | 0 | 0.00 | 29 | 0.01 |
| TOTAL | 44,797 | 100.00 | 319,417 | 100.00 | 364,214 | 100.00 |
