Azerbaijani-Georgian War: Difference between revisions

Azerbaijani-Georgian War — a short battle between the forces of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and Azerbaijani volunteer groups and the military forces of the Democratic Republic of Georgia who attacked the Broken Bridge border post.^[1]

Reason

The rapid advance of the Islamic Army of the Caucasus and the Separate Azerbaijani Corps forces towards Baku had alarmed Bolshevik Russia. According to the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty signed between Russia and Germany, the South Caucasus was considered a sphere of influence of Russia. Russia claimed that the Ottoman had violated the agreement signed by Russia with Ottoman by entering this area. After Germany reached an agreement with Russia that it would be given a share of Baku oil, Germany, which was in dire need of oil and also did not want a second front to open again in the East, undertook to dissuade Ottoman from the idea of ​​liberating Baku.^[1]

The German Empire Foreign Ministry leadership decided to increase their activities after seeing that the diplomatic pressure they exerted on the Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pasha did not yield any results. As the Georgian Democratic Republic had already officially entered the protectorate of Germany. Thus, Germany incited Georgia to attack Azerbaijan in order to intimidate the Ottoman and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

Battle

The Islamic Army of the Caucasus and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic forces, which were engaged in intense battles against the troops of the Baku Soviet of People’s Commissars, did not expect military intervention from Georgia.
According to Nuru Pasha‘s report, on July 27, exciting news came from the western borders of Azerbaijan.^[2] The German government, looking for an opportunity to intervene in Azerbaijan, had decided to resort to military means.At his instigation, several detachments of Georgian troops attacked the border post called Broken Bridge in the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan. There they raised Georgian and German flags. Azerbaijani volunteer detachments led by Turkish officers counterattacked and drove out the Georgian detachments. As a result of the battle, 26 people were killed on the Georgian side, 20 were taken prisoner, and 2 machine guns were captured.^[1] Attempts to breach the border in the Zagatala and Sheki directions were also resolutely prevented.^[1]

References