Persian campaign (World War I)
The Persian campaign or invasion of Iran (Persian: اشغال ایران در جنگ جهانی اول) 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 and ending with the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, as part of the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. The fighting also involved local Persian units, who fought against the Entente and Ottoman forces in Iran. The conflict proved to be a devastating experience for Persia. Over 2 million Persian civilians died in the conflict, mostly due to the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman regime and Persian famine of 1917–1919, influenced by British and Russian actions. The Qajar government's inability to maintain the country's sovereignty during and immediately after the First World War led to a coup d'état in 1921 and Reza Shah's establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty.
For other military campaigns in Persia, see Persian War (disambiguation).
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 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.
In 1914, Enver Pasha ordered Lt. Col. Kâzım Bey, commander of the 1st Expeditionary Force (11 December) and Lt. Col. Halil Bey, commander of the 5th Expeditionary Force (25 December): "Your duty is to move with your division towards Persia and proceed through Tabriz to Dagestan, where you will ignite a general rebellion and repulse the Russians from the shores of the Caspian Sea."
The German operations were carried out by Wilhelm Wassmuss and Count Kanitz. Wassmuss, known as the German Lawrence, was a German consular official in Persia who loved the desert, and wore the flowing robes of a desert tribesman. He persuaded his superiors in Constantinople that he could lead Persian tribes in a revolt against Britain.
In 1914, the British Indian Army had several units located in the southern influence zone; its officers were experienced in fighting tribal forces through decades of conflict on the North-Western Frontier. At the end of 1917, a British force headed by Major-General Lionel Dunsterville was established. He arrived to take command in Baghdad on January 18, 1918. The British troops of Dunsterville eventually numbered about 1,000. They were supported by a field artillery battery, machine gun section, three armoured cars, and also two airplanes. Together with mobile field hospitals, staff officers, headquarters staff etc., the total force must have numbered about 1,300. Dunsterville was ordered to "proceed from Mesopotamia through Persia to the port of Anzali, then board ship to Baku and onwards." In 1916 the British government formed the South Persian Rifles to protect their interests in Persia.[13]
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]
The engagements were in northern Iranian Azerbaijan, comprising the provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil, and cities including Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil, Maragheh, Marand, Mahabad, and Khoy.
Operations[edit]
Prelude[edit]
The central Persian government had difficulties in establishing order before the war. In a single year; the Qashqai Tribesmen, the most powerful in southern Persia, defied the governor-general and raided in Fars as did the Boyer Ahmad-i's Tribesmen; the Khamseh Tribesmen raided the caravan routes in the Kerman province; and other tribes raided in the Fars, Yazd or Kermān provinces from time to time. The government-controlled gendarmerie had gradually established themselves, although not wholly, and engaged a number of tribesmen. The authorities constructed posts along the routes which they held at the outbreak of war.
Russia maintained forces in northern Persia. The Russians, based on security reasons of the situation of Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Persia, occupied a number of cities. Tabriz was occupied in 1909; Urmia and Khoi in 1910. This measure enabled the Russians not only to control Persia, but also to secure the road from their rail-head at Djoulfa to the Van Province of the Ottoman Empire through Khoi.
On July 28, 1914, the First World War began. First the Ottoman Empire did not take any serious action. However, the security of the region began to decline even before the Russian-Ottoman conflicts. Disturbances began along the border. A notable attack was made on Urmia, ostensibly by Kurdish Tribesmen. About the same time the Russians closed the Ottoman consulates in Urmia, Tabriz and Khoi, and expelled the Kurds and other Sunni Muslims from the villages near Urmia. Arms were given at the same time to some of the Armenian and Assyrian Christians. Russian authorities distributed 24,000 rifles to the some Kurdish Tribesmen that sided with them in Persia and the Van Province.[14] Russian-Ottoman conflicts began with the Bergmann Offensive on November 2, 1914.
1914[edit]
In December 1914, General Myshlaevsky ordered a withdrawal from Persia at the height of the Battle of Sarikamish.[15] Only one brigade of Russian troops under the command of the Armenian General Nazarbekoff and one battalion of Armenian volunteers scattered throughout Salmast and Urmia. Contact was limited to skirmishes on the border of northern Persia. The presence of Russian cavalry units kept them quiet.[15] Enver established [one division] troops from conscripted at Constantinople [December 25].[16] This unit was given under the command of Khalil Bey.[16] While Halil Bey's troops were preparing for the operation, a small group had already crossed the Persian frontier. After repulsing a Russian offensive toward Van, Van Gendarmerie Division [commanded by Major Ferid], a lightly equipped paramilitary formation, had chased the enemy into Persia.
On December 14, 1914, Van Jandarma Division occupied the city of Qotur. Later, proceeded towards Khoy. It was supposed to keep this passage open to Kâzım Bey (5th Expeditionary Force) and Halil Bey units (1st Expeditionary Force) who were to move towards Tabriz from the bridgehead established at Qotur. However, the Battle of Sarıkamısh depleted the Ottoman forces and these forces to be deployed to Persia were needed elsewhere. On January 10 the 5th Expeditionary Force, which was on the way to Persia, was rerouted north to the Third Army and soon it was followed by the 1st Expeditionary Force.
1915[edit]
In 1915, Wilhelm Wassmuss conferred with local chiefs and distributed pamphlets urging revolt. He was arrested by a local chief, and turned over to the British, but managed to escape. He hoped to incite a revolt through pro-German members of the Persian government, in conjunction with an Ottoman advance towards Kermanshah and Hamadan.[15]
On January 4, 1915, a volunteer detachment led by Omer Naci Bey, who was sent to Persia on a special mission by Talat Pasha, captured the city of Urmia. One week later, the "Mosul Group" commanded by Omer Fevzi Bey entered Tabriz without facing much resistance, having apparently taken the Russian leadership completely by surprise. Though referred as Khalil Bey by Aram, Omer Fevzi with his (superior) forces captured the city of Urmia in a few hours and marched on Salmast.[16] At the end of 1914, Omer Fevzi who was identified as Khalil took nearly a thousand Russians prisoners.[16] On January 26–28, 1915, in Sufian area, General Chernozubov fought a short engagement. Russia sent a strong force which succeeded in recapturing the city. On January 30, Chernozubov entered Tabriz.
On February 3, 1915, General Nazarbekov launched a counter-offensive. This time, the Van Gendarmerie Division succeeded in holding its lines.
In early March, Nazarbekov attacked with a stronger force, numbering seven battalions. On 7 March, Van Gendarmerie Division evacuated Dilman and began to withdraw, reaching Qotur three days later and entrenching there.
Aftermath[edit]
After the Ottoman defeat in World War I, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire soon followed. Enver Pasha's political vision ("If Russians are beaten in the key cities of Persia, they could be forced to out from the region") failed as Russian and Bakhtiari troops landed in 1920 and forced the pro-Turkish Majlis to disband. The immediate outcome of the Campaign was the Anglo-Persian Agreement, which gave drilling rights to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The treaty was issued by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon to the Persian government in August 1919. It guaranteed British access to Iranian oil fields. In 1919, northern Persia was occupied by the British General William Edmund Ironside to enforce the terms of the Armistice of Mudros. The British government also attempted to establish a protectorate over Iran, in addition to tightening their control over the increasingly lucrative Persian oil fields.
In late 1920, the Soviet Socialist Republic in Rasht was preparing to march on Tehran with "a guerrilla force of 1,500 Jangalis, Armenians, and this time Kurds, and Azerbaijanis were on their side", reinforced by the Soviet Red Army. But Soviet forces withdrew in 1921, which helped Britain in its goal of establishing a protectorate. In that year, a military coup established Reza Khan, a Persian officer of the Persian Cossack Brigade and then hereditary Shah of the new Pahlavi dynasty (1925). Reza Shah curtailed the power of the Majlis, effectively turning it into a rubber stamp. While Reza Khan and his Cossack brigade secured Tehran, a Persian envoy in Moscow negotiated a treaty with the Bolsheviks for the removal of Soviet troops from Persia. The coup d'état of 1921 and the emergence of Reza Khan were assisted by the British government, which wished to halt Bolshevik penetration of Iran, particularly because of the threat it posed to British India. It was later claimed by the British government that Britain provided "ammunition, supplies, and pay" for Reza's troops.[24][25][26] However, Reza Shah's later anti-British actions, including fighting and deposing the puppets of the British government in Iran, such as Sheikh Khazal, strongly contradicted these claims.[27]