Battle of Robat Karim
The Battle of Rabat Karim (Persian: نبرد رباط کریم, December 27, 1915) was fought by the Iranian people, around Rabat Karim (near Tehran) during the First World War under the command of Heydar Latifiyan against the occupation of Iran by Russian forces.
Preparations[edit]
Before World War I[edit]
The Persian campaign or invasion of Iran was a series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire, British Empire and Russian Empire in various areas of what was then neutral Qajar Iran, beginning in December 1914 as part of the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I.
Persia declared its neutrality during the outbreak of the First World War.[1] Despite this, the country quickly became affected by the pre-war rivalry between the Allies and the Central Powers. Foreign interests in Persia were primarily based on the country's strategic location between British India, Imperial Russia, Afghanistan and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the country's oil reserves, which were first discovered on 26 May 1908.[2]
In the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907, the Russian and British governments agreed to divide Persia into three regions, with the Russians laying claim to northern Persia, the part adjacent to their previously conquered territories in the Transcaucasia, and the British claimed the south which bordered British India (a third region was left as a buffer zone). The 1907 treaty capped off several decades of the Great Game between the Russians and the British. The treaty was signed at a time when German imperial expansion into the region was underway and the agreement served both Russia and Britain by providing a counterweight to increasing German regional influence and potential future expansion into the region.
Forces[edit]
Persian forces[edit]
The Persian forces were established around certain districts, and not one single force. Each district furnished its own battalion and each province had several battalions. Each district depending on the tribal grouping furnished one or sometimes two battalions usually under their own chiefs. The strength of the battalions was from 600 to 800. They had artillery batteries whose strength ranged from four to eight guns. Irregular troops amounted to about 50,000 in each district, with ranks composed of tribal horsemen and an uncertain number of footmen, all poorly armed. It was not uncommon of the chiefs, who controlled the battalions, to change sides. Some of these forces were Qashqai Tribesmen, Tangistani Tribesmen, Laristani Tribesmen, and Khamseh tribesmen. The Persian central government also had the Persian Central Government Gendarmerie, which had Swedish officers and consisted of about 6,000 troops. Only 2,000 of the 6,000 were mounted. They were in six regiments, each of nine battalions, and their armament included Mauser rifles, twelve machine guns, and four mountain guns. The Persian forces were dispersed at Tehran, Kazvin (Ghazvin), and Hamadan with the objective of keeping the country's main roads, which covered an estimated distance of 930 miles, under Persian control.
Russia Forces[edit]
Russia had long since established forces in the region. The Persian Cossack Brigade and a small contingent of the Russian Caucasus Army under the Armenian General Tovmas Nazarbekian was stationed there. The Cossack Brigade consisted of eight squadrons, a small battalion of infantry and a horse battery of six Krupp guns; their total strength did not exceed 2,000. Besides this force, in 1912 Russia obtained the formal consent of the Persian government to the formation of a similar Cossack Brigade at Tabriz under Russian officers. The consent of the government was given as a condition for the withdrawal of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan which, at the onset of the Great War, Russia did not. The Russians also moved one detachment of Armenian volunteer units under the command of Andranik Ozanian to this region.
Battle zone[edit]
Robat Karim (Persian: رباطكريم) is a city in the Central District of Robat Karim County, Tehran province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[8]
One of the main reasons for the formation of the battle of Rabat Karim, the location of this city on the Silk Road and Khorasan pilgrimage route to Baghdad can be mentioned, and on the other hand, after Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar chose Tehran as the capital and he encouraged its construction and settlement. Tehran became the center of governmental and governmental affairs, the commuting of people to Tehran to meet their needs and perform administrative work from different parts of the country increased, and people from the southern regions of Iran, caravans, merchants and military units had to go from Rabat Karim, which is on the Saveh road to Tehran. It was true that they were passing through, which gradually attracted immigrants from various cities to Rabat Karim.[9]
Last fight[edit]
The Russian army from one side reaches the village of Kolmeh, which is located between the Robat Karim road and Tehran,[10] and the local fighters are surrounded from three sides. The Russians start bombarding the area from almost a mile, until in the evening, the strongholds of the local Batop fighters are bombarded, everyone survives. But in the evening, the infantry riders of the Russian army came closer and the war with swords started and after a bloody clash, seventy people were killed.[11]
Heyder Latifiyan, the senior commander, was killed in this battle.[12][11]
Aftermath[edit]
Ahmad Matin-Daftari (later Prime Minister of Iran) mentions the tragic fate and death of these resistance forces in his memoirs.[13]
After the defeat of Robat Karim's popular resistance and his death, Abdul Hossein Farmanfarma expressed his regret through a telegram sent to Isfahan and told the National Defense Committee that: In addition to the 7-8-year exams and the Saveh and Rabat Karim exams, I will sit for one more exam in Isfahan and forcefully invite the foreign army to the middle of Iran, which is Isfahan..."