DOCSLIB.ORG

Reginald Teague-Jones, Master Spy of the Great Game

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Reginald Teague-Jones, Master Spy of the Great Game MOST SECRET AGENT OF EMPIRE TALINE TER MINASSIAN Most Secret Agent of Empire Reginald Teague-Jones Master Spy of the Great Game Translated by Tom Rees A A Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2014 Taline Ter Minassian Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title Minassian, Taline Ter ISBN 9780190210762 (alk. paper) Most Secret Agent of Empire: Reginald Teague-Jones Master Spy of the Great Game Printed in India on Acid-Free Paper To the memory of Brian Pearce (1915–2008) To the memory of my father, Levon Ter Minassian (1926–2009) CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1. Childhood in Liverpool and St Petersburg 9 Liverpool: birthplace and departure point 10 â Pendennis Street 10 â Liverpool: ‘Second City of the Empire’ 12 An Englishman in Russia 13 â Dazzling St Petersburg 13 â A German Education at St Petersburg: the Annenschule 16 Red Sunday: memories of the 1905 Revolution 19 â Warning bells and ‘ice-hilling’ 19 â The preludes to an expected drama 21 â Caught in the crowd: Teague-Jones, witness to the massacre 23 2. From the Punjab to the North West Frontier: The Making of a Gentleman of the Raj 27 An ambition: joining the Indian Political Service 28 ââA foretaste of the Frontier: the Punjab 28 ââThe Indian Political Service: a caste within the colonial administration 31 â A shadow organisation: the Indian Political Intelligence Service 34 The training-ground: the North West Frontier Province 36 â Administrative and political frontiers: controlling the hinterland 37 â Sherani country 39 â The Frontier: a territory for elites? 44 vii CONTENTS 3.âThe Persian Gulf and the Hunt for ‘MrWassmuss’ 49 The Great War and Persia 50 ââIran during the First World War: the theory and practice of ‘neutrality’ 51 â Jihad and pointed helmets 52 â A police force in the South: the South Persia Rifles (SPR) 54 The tribulations of the ‘German Lawrence’ in the Persian Gulf 56 â Wassmuss, a model field-agent 57 â Reginald Teague-Jones on Wassmuss’s track 60 Persia and the Russian Revolution 63 â On the road to Meshed 64 â Meshed: Teague-Jones at the Turkestan frontier 68 4. Ashkhabad and the Transcaspian Episode 73 A Secret Mission at the gates of Central Asia in 1918 74 â First impressions of Transcaspia 75 ââTranscaspia after the Russian Revolution: from the Red offensive to the emergence of a Turkmen power 79 ââThe brief history of a transient government: the Transcaspian government 82 Reginald Teague-Jones: ‘Political Representative in Transcaspia’ 84 â ‘This is a railway war’ 85 â A railway government 88 â Building an intelligence network in Transcaspia 91 From improvisation to retreat: the Transcaspian episode 94 â The Turkmen question: an instrumental strategy? 95 â An intelligence service in Yomut country 98 â Malmiss: game over 101 5. The Legend of the wenty-SixT Commissars: Teague-Jones, Hero or Villain? 105 Baku: 1918 106 â The country before the battle 106 â Baku: the geostrategic prize 108 â The siege of Baku 110 The drama of the twenty-six commissars: the anatomy of an execution 116 â A political drama with a railway ending 116 â Passengers for Krasnovodsk 119 â Diminished responsibilities 122 ‘A malicious propaganda legend’ (Teague-Jones, November 1979) 125 â The origins of the Soviet case: Vadim Chaikin’s inquiry 127 viii CONTENTS â Shot or decapitated? 130 â The culprit on stage: Teague-Jones in Soviet iconography 134 6. The Retreat of the White Armies: From Constantinople to the Caucasus (1919–21) 139 A nest of spies in Constantinople 140 â In the ruins of the Ottoman Empire: Constantinople in 1919 141 â ‘Beefsteaks à la Hoover-Nansen’ 143 â A meeting with General Wrangel 146 The Caucasian imbroglio 149 â Back to Baku 150 â Georgia on the eve of the Red invasion 154 â The view from Mount Ararat (February 1921) 160 Teague-Jones and the Soviet–Turkish Entente 163 â A confluence of interests 163 â Ajaria: a strategic position on the Soviet–Turkish frontier 166 ââPlans for a Muslim policy: an Alliance counter-strategy against Russia 168 7. Ronald Sinclair, Imperial Traveller 173 ‘Zobeida and I’: A Persian Odyssey 174 â An opaque mission in Iran for a combination of partners 175 â Levantine encounters 178 â Across the Syrian Desert 180 Persian adventures: to India by the back door 182 â Kurdistan to Iranian Azerbaijan: assessing Soviet influence 182 â Iran from north to south: Tehran to Bushire 186 â Iran from west to east: return to Baluchistan 191 The colonial eye behind the camera 193 â A Cairo idyll … 194 â A passenger of Imperial Airways 198 â A season in Tibet 202 8. Ronald Sinclair in America (1941–60) 205 âBritish Security Coordination at the heart of Anglo-American relations during the Second World War 207 â Rockefeller Center, 38th Floor, Room 3801 207 â June 1941: an emergency mission to Bermuda 210 â Major Sinclair, BSC Coordination officer 216 The Anglo-American relationship and the test of India 218 â The IPI: from imperial security to Anglo-American collaboration 218 ix CONTENTS â The India League of America: the rising power of a pressure group 222 â Counter-propaganda in the land of democracy 227 The transfer of power 230 â The other side of the mirror 231 â ‘Sahib! Sahib!’ 233 â Return to the North West Frontier 236 Epilogue 243 Note on the Sources 249 Notes 251 Index 269 x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first version of this, the first biography of Teague-Jones, was in French. The present account is offered to the English-reading public to whom in a sense it prop- erly belongs. Tom Rees’s elegant translation and Teague-Jones’s own writings now presented in their original vigorous English make for a better book, not just a transla- tion but in many respects a work of restoration. It will not, however, escape the reader that some of the details picked out here as examples of the exoticism of British culture derive from the French lens through which this historian has examined them. The product of a meeting beyond the grave between the descendant of a Dashnak revolutionary and a British agent pursued by a Bolshevik fatwa, the book owes a debt of gratitude to Brian Pearce for his assistance and to the historian Anahide Ter Minassian for her patient and painstaking scrutiny of the text. It would not have seen the light of day as an English version without the friendships I made during my adventures in pursuit of Reginald Teague-Jones. My translator Tom Rees, David Burnett, the publisher of Teague-Jones’s Persian memoir and diary at Gollancz, Gill Boyes and Ann Randall who nursed him at Charlton House all provided invaluable help. I am grateful too to Antony Wynn, Matthew Lee, Christian Lequesne and Michael Dwyer, my editor at Hurst. And lastly my warm thanks go to Séverine Bézie for her vital contribution to the maps that feature in the book. xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BSC British Security Coordination CIA Central Intelligence Agency DIB Delhi Intelligence Bureau GPU/KGB Russian Secret Police; Intelligence Service of the USSR IPI Indian Political Intelligence; British intelligence agency in India ISI Inter-Services Intelligence; Pakistani intelligence agency MI5 British domestic security service NWFP North West Frontier Province OSS Office of Strategic Services, United States intelligence agency formed during the Second World War and predecessor of the CIA PWE Political Warfare Executive SIS, MI6 Secret Intelligence Service, British intelligence agency SOE Special Operations Executive xiii Map 1: Central Asia, Persia and Transcaspia (1918) Map 2: The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Sherani Country Map 3: The Caucasus Campaign of World War One. Offensive of the Army of Islam (1918) Map 4: The Battle of Baku (June–September 1918) Map 5: From Beirut through Iran to India: Reginald Teague-Jones’s journey with Zobeida (1926) INTRODUCTION An inscription on a tombstone can often serve as a useful starting point for a biogra- phy. But one would look in vain for an epitaph to Reginald Teague-Jones in Plymouth, where he died on 16 November 1988 at the age of ninety-nine. The ‘spy who disappeared’ had long since swapped his identity for that of Ronald Sinclair, yet there is no funerary monument with this name on it either. It is not that Reginald Teague-Jones, alias Ronald Sinclair, wished to depart this world without leaving any traces. On the contrary, he took care, within the authorised limits of a rigid profes- sional code—that of a British secret service agent—to leave a profusion of clues behind, not for the descendants which his two marriages had failed to provide him with, but for ‘some historian of the future’.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Red Sand: Canadians in Persia & Transcaucasia, 1918 Tom
    RED SAND: CANADIANS IN PERSIA & TRANSCAUCASIA, 1918 TOM SUTTON, MA THESIS ROUGH DRAFT, 20 JANUARY 2012 CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Stopgap 2 Volunteers 3 The Mad Dash 4 Orphans 5 Relief 6 The Push 7 Bijar 8 Baku 9 Evacuation 10 Historiography Conclusion Introduction NOTES IN BOLD ARE EITHER TOPICS LEFT UNFINISHED OR GENERAL TOPIC/THESIS SENTENCES. REFERECNCE MAP IS ON LAST PAGE. Goals, Scope, Thesis Brief assessment of literature on Canada in the Russian Civil War. Brief assessment of literature on Canadians in Dunsterforce. 1 Stopgap: British Imperial Intentions and Policy in the Caucasus & Persia Before 1917, the Eastern Front was held almost entirely by the Russian Imperial Army. From the Baltic to the Black Sea, through the western Caucasus and south to the Persian Gulf, the Russians bolstered themselves against the Central Empires. The Russians and Turks traded Kurdistan, Assyria, and western Persia back and forth until the spring of 1917, when the British captured Baghdad, buttressing the south-eastern front. Meanwhile, the Russian army withered in unrest and desertion. Russian troops migrated north through Tabriz, Batum, Tiflis, and Baku, leaving dwindling numbers to defend an increasingly tenable front, and as the year wore on the fighting spirit of the Russian army evaporated. In the autumn of 1917, the three primary nationalities of the Caucasus – Georgians, Armenians, and Azerbaijanis – called an emergency meeting in Tiflis in reaction to the Bolshevik coup d'etat in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In attendance were representatives from trade unions, civil employees, regional soviets, political parties, the army, and lastly Entente military agents.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Azerbaijan (Textbook)
    DILGAM ISMAILOV HISTORY OF AZERBAIJAN (TEXTBOOK) Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University Methodological Council of the meeting dated July 7, 2017, was published at the direction of № 6 BAKU - 2017 Dilgam Yunis Ismailov. History of Azerbaijan, AzMİU NPM, Baku, 2017, p.p.352 Referents: Anar Jamal Iskenderov Konul Ramiq Aliyeva All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means. Electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. In Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction, the book “History of Azerbaijan” is written on the basis of a syllabus covering all topics of the subject. Author paid special attention to the current events when analyzing the different periods of Azerbaijan. This book can be used by other high schools that also teach “History of Azerbaijan” in English to bachelor students, master students, teachers, as well as to the independent learners of our country’s history. 2 © Dilgam Ismailov, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword…………………………………….……… 9 I Theme. Introduction to the history of Azerbaijan 10 II Theme: The Primitive Society in Azerbaijan…. 18 1.The Initial Residential Dwellings……….............… 18 2.The Stone Age in Azerbaijan……………………… 19 3.The Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages in Azerbaijan… 23 4.The Collapse of the Primitive Communal System in Azerbaijan………………………………………….... 28 III Theme: The Ancient and Early States in Azer- baijan. The Atropatena and Albanian Kingdoms.. 30 1.The First Tribal Alliances and Initial Public Institutions in Azerbaijan……………………………. 30 2.The Kingdom of Manna…………………………… 34 3.The Atropatena and Albanian Kingdoms………….
    [Show full text]
  • Dunsterforce
    John Weightman Warden (marked “Daddy”) with other members of an aerial course in October, 1917. City of Vancouver Archives CVA802-52 revolver. The volunteers for the mission—which required 150 Dunsterforce officers and 300 NCOs—included Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Imperials (British), all By Lisa Smedman with at least a year’s worth of front-line experience. They were, said Warden, “highly individualistic characters... men of Vancouver Courier newspaper the do or die type.” All of the officers, and most of the men, (www.vancourier.com) had received decorations for valour—some, as many as five times. n January 1918, Lieutenant Colonel John Weightman They were told they would be “embarking on one of the Warden faced the toughest decision of his long most dangerous missions that British troops had ever been I military career. He’d just received word that asked to attempt.” Wild speculation followed. Some of the volunteers were being recruited for a “secret mission” in some recruits thought they would be bound for Ireland, or that distant land far from the trenches of France—a mission that, they’d be used to put down French Canadian “revolts” in he later recalled, “was mysteriously whispered was a very Quebec. Others guessed Egypt or East Africa. dangerous one.” When the volunteers were introduced to 15 Russian Volunteering for this mission, however, would mean officers who would be acting as interpreters, rumour had it giving up command of the 102nd Canadian Infantry they were going to fight the Bolsheviks. But then came a Battalion—men he’d personally recruited from Vancouver and confusing order: they should pack both cold-weather gear— from smaller towns throughout B.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Lawrence of Arabia, the Bedouins and Allied Victory in World War I
    Lawrence of Arabia, The Bedouins and Allied Victory in World War I Windstar Cruises Ross Arnold, Fall 2017 Wonders of Arabia Lectures Nov 8- Children of Abraham; Understanding Islam Nov 9- Moses, Israelites, and Crossing the Red Sea; Lawrence of Arabia, Bedouins and Victory in WWI Nov 10- History & Culture of Oman 11/11- Salalah, Oman Nov 12- Alexander the Great & Hellenism; Crusades Nov 13- History, Culture & Conflict in the Middle East 11/14- Khasab, Oman 11/15- Dubai Russian Empire Ottoman Empire Middle East 1914 The Gallipoli Disaster (Apr 1915- Jan 1916) Bedouin Tribes of Arabia The Hashemite Rulers Ali bin Hussein King of Hejaz, 1924-25 Abdullah bin al-Hussein Emir/King of Jordan, 1921-51 Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi King of Syria, 1920 King of Iraq, 1921-33 Hussein bin Ali Sharif of Mecca/ King of Hejaz The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, July 1915-January 1916 Sir Henry McMahon Hussein bin Ali British High Commissioner, Egypt Sharif of Mecca/ King of Hejaz What Great Britain promised the Arabs Thomas Edward Lawrence “Lawrence of Arabia” Gertrude Bell “The Queen of the Desert” Wejh Lawrence at Aqaba The Sykes-Picot Agreement, May 1916 Colonel Sir Mark Sykes Francoise George-Picot The Balfour Declaration, November 1917 Arthur James Balfour Baron Walter Rothschild UK Foreign Secretary British Jewish Leader The End of World War I – Key Dates 1918 Aug 8-Nov 11 – Hundred Days Offensive, last on Western Front. Aug 26-Sept 1 – Battle of Baku, last Turkish offensive. Sept 18-Oct 17 – Allies break through German lines. Sept 19-25 – British conquer Palestine.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Function of the Fictional Work of H. J. C Von Grimmelshausen and Essad Bey Sarah Griesbach Washington University in St
    Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2010 Historical Function of the Fictional Work of H. J. C von Grimmelshausen and Essad Bey Sarah Griesbach Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Griesbach, Sarah, "Historical Function of the Fictional Work of H. J. C von Grimmelshausen and Essad Bey" (2010). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 504. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/504 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY University College Liberal Arts Historical Function of the Fictional Work of H. J. C von Grimmelshausen and Essad Bey by Sarah Hermes Griesbach A thesis presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Of Washington University in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts December 2010 Saint Louis, Missouri Table of Contents/Section Division: Introduction 1 Section 1 The Unique Vantage Points of Grimmelshausen and Essad Bey 7 Section 2 The Novel as Historical Sourcebook in the Work of Grimmelshausen and Bey 16 Section 3 The Use of Character Perspective to Convey Truth and Sincerity 47 Section 4 Grimmelshausen’s and Bey’s Focus on the Absurd, Fantastic, and Foreign 59 Section 5 Grimmelshausen’s and Bey's Historical Consciousness 75 Section 6 Lessons through Storytelling; Arguments Made in the Historical Narratives of Grimmelshausen and Bey 84 Conclusion 102 Bibliography Regarding the usage of names within this paper: Grimmelshausen, his translators, and his critics use multiple monikers for the same characters.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Azerbaijan: Deconstructing the “Age-Old Friendship” and the “Deadly Feud” Myths 20
    THE SOUTH CAUCASUS AND TURKEY: HISTORY LESSONS OF THE 20TH CENTURY 2012 The South Caucasus and Turkey: History Lessons of the 20th Century Publisher: Heinrich Böll Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office Editor in Chief: Sergey Rumyantsev © Heinrich Böll Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office, 2012a 38, Zovreti st., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia T +995 32 238 04 67/68, +995 32 291 37 39 | F +995 32 291 28 97 E [email protected] | W www.ge.boell.org | F www.facebook.com/hbf.caucasus ISBN 978-9941-0-4390-1 CONTENTS Nino Lejava, Khatuna Samnidze From the Publisher 7 Sergey Rumyantsev Introduction. “History Lessons” in the Year of “Anniversary” 9 PART 1. BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: “RECENT” PAST 19 Ilham Abbasov The History of Azerbaijan: Deconstructing the “Age-Old Friendship” and the “Deadly Feud” Myths 20 Satenik Mkrtchyan The Republic of Armenia’s Neighbours in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries in Contemporary World History Textbooks 47 Nino Chikovani The Images of Self and Neighbours in Georgian History Textbooks: Representation of the Events of the Beginning of the 20th Century in the Post-Soviet Period 65 Çakır Ceyhan Suvari Religious Identity and the Construction of Otherness: The Perception of Armenian Identity in The Turkish Educational System 94 PART 2. THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY: SEARCHING FOR NEW INTERPRETATIONS 119 Sevil Huseynova Azerbaijan in the Late 20th – Early 21st Centuries: Ethnic Boundaries in the Context of Relations with “Neighbours” 120 Mikayel Zolyan Writing the History of the Present: The Post-Soviet Period
    [Show full text]
  • National Minorities in South Caucasus
    Dr. Ahmad Shahidov Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (AIDHR) www.aidhr.org [email protected] +99450 372 87 30 NATIONAL MINORITIES IN SOUTH CAUCASUS Today, Azerbaijan is distinguished with ethnic diversity. Besides Azerbaijani Turks, Mountain Jews, Tats, Talysh, Kurds, Molokans, Ingiloys, Tsakhurs, Avars, Lezgins, Khynalygs, Buduqlus, Grysz and other ethnic groups live in its territory. Although the representatives of ethnic groups consider themselves as Azerbaijanis but each group has retained distinctive elements of their different culture. This culture is reflected in domestic life, crafts, in kitchen and various ceremonies. Despite the difficulties being experienced by Azerbaijan, due to the unresolved armed conflict that continues more than a decade with neighboring Armenia, which occupies 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territory and the presence of about one million refugees and forcibly displaced persons - victims of ethnic cleansing organized by the Armenian armed forces and terrorist groups, among whom in addition to Azerbaijanis there are persons belonging to various minorities (Kurds, Russians, Jews and others), as well as problems connected with transitional period, the Government of Azerbaijan continues to pursue a consistent policy towards protection of minorities rights. 1 National minorities constitute 9.4 % of the population of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Here is a structural composition of population, languages and places of compact living of persons belonging to national minorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Lezgins - 178 thousand, compactly live in the Northern regions of Azerbaijan. Language of communication is Lezgins, relating to the Daghestan branch of the Caucasian languages, as well as Azerbaijani and Russian languages. Russians - 141,7 thousand, compactly live in the industrial cities, as well as a number of rural regions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Armenians from Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars
    The Armenians From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars RAZMIK PANOSSIAN HURST & COMPANY, LONDON THE ARMENIANS To my parents Stephan and Sona Panossian RAZMIK PANOSSIAN The Armenians From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars HURST & COMPANY,LONDON First published in the United Kingdom by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PL Copyright © by Razmik Panossian, 2006 All rights reserved. Printed in India The right of Razmik Panossian to be identified as the author of this volume has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyight, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. A catalogue record for this volume is available from the British Library. ISBNs 1-85065-644-4 casebound 1-85065-788-2 paperback ‘The life of a nation is a sea, and those who look at it from the shore cannot know its depths.’—Armenian proverb ‘The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong man has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.’—Hugo of St Victor (monk from Saxony,12th century) The proverb is from Mary Matossian, The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia. Hugo of St Victor is cited in Edward Said, ‘Reflections on Exile’, Granta, no. 13. CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements page xi 1. Introduction 1 THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND DEFINITIONS 5 A brief overview: going beyond dichotomies 6 Questionable assumptions: homogenisation and the role of the state 10 The Armenian view 12 Defining the nation 18 — The importance of subjectivity 20 — The importance of modernity 24 — The characteristics of nations 28 2.
    [Show full text]
  • FE 2B/D ALBATROS SCOUTS Western Front 1916–17
    FE 2b/d ALBATROS SCOUTS Western Front 1916–17 JAMES F. MILLER © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com FE 2b/d ALBATROS SCOUTS Western Front 1916–17 JAMES F. MILLER © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS Introduction 4 Chronology 8 Design and Development 10 Technical Specifications 20 The Strategic Situation 40 The Combatants 45 Combat 51 Statistics and Analysis 69 Aftermath 77 Further Reading 79 Index 80 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION After World War I began in August 1914, the mobile conflict that everyone had expected lasted but a matter of weeks. Initially, the German forces caught the Entente off guard by violating established treaties and pushing through neutral Belgium, enabling them to swing behind the main French and British forces and head south in the direction of Paris. There were available units that attempted to thwart this invasion, but they were unable to stop the Germans until spirited counter-attacks were made during the Battle of the Marne from 5 to 10 September, which halted the advance some 30–40 miles shy of the French capital. Already weakened by combat losses and far-stretched communications and supply lines, the Germans withdrew strategically and established defensive positions at the Aisne River. When these could not be breached the opposing forces attempted to outflank each other, building elaborate systems of defensive trenches as they moved further from Paris. These systems were eventually halted by the North Sea and Swiss border. Initially thought to be temporary, the trenches bordered a static front that saw very limited movement during the next four years.
    [Show full text]
  • The Armenian Herald / Armenian National Union of America
    THE ARMENIAN HERALD "The Interest of the Weakest is as Sa cred as the Interest of the Strongest." President Wilson. CONTRIBUTORS' COLUMN FOR NOVEMBER NUMBER Mr. Chakmakjian's article, Justice to Armenian question. Let us hope that Armenia, written for this number, is an time has come for them to fulfill their expose of Armenia's claims to freedom pledge by granting Armenia full inde and independence. It is quite opportune pendence. It gives us much pleasure to at this phase of the world's politics, reproduce at her request her article, when the fate of the oppressed national Turkey Must Die, which was pub ities are to be finally determined and lished in The Japan Gazette, Sept 26, solved in their favor. Mr. Chakmakjian 1918. as a student of Armenian history is qualified to speak with authority. Mr. Maynard Williams' article, Baku— Pan-Turanian Hub, restates in strong Mbs. Bertha S. Papazian's first chap terms the splendid resistance that the ter of her remarkable and eloquent study Armenians put up in the Caucasus of The Tragedy Armenia appears in of against the Tartars and the Turks in this number. The other chapters will the struggles at Baku. We are pub follow. They form a copyrighted book, lishing this article with the kind per and are published here by permission mission of the American Asiatic As of the Pilgrim Press. The book con sociation and the Doubleday, Page 4 based on stitutes a striking appeal, in Company. disputable arguments and facts, of the justice of the Armenian claim to inde pendence.
    [Show full text]
  • Secret Army: an Elite Force, a Secret Mission, a Fleet of Model-T Fords, a Far Flung Corner of World War I
    USI Vol69 No2 Jun18_USI Vol55 No4/2005 31/05/2018 3:02 pm Page 31 BOOK REVIEWS: Secret army: an elite force, a secret mission, a fleet of Model-T Fords, a far flung corner of World War I by Barry Stone Allen and Unwin: Sydney; 2017; 248 pp.; ISBN 9781760290689 (paperback); RRP $29.99 Ursula Davidson Library call number 577 STON 2017 Secret Army tells the story of ‘Dunsterforce’ – an occupying Baku and thus controlling the Caspian, Britain Allied military force raised in late 1917 and named after hoped to forestall a Turko-German invasion of India. its commander, General Lionel Dunsterville. The force Dunsterforce fought the Battle of Baku from 26 August – comprised about 350 Australian, New Zealand, British, 14 September 1918, but then retreated from the city on Canadian and South African officers and non- the night of 14/15 September. Two days later Dunster - commissioned officers (NCOs), who were tasked to force was disbanded. organise local pro-British units in northern Iran and Secret Army includes a detailed account of how in southern Caucasus to replace the Tsarist armies that had July 1918, Australian Captain Stanley Savige, with five been fighting the Ottoman forces in Armenia. officers and 15 NCOs of Dunsterforce, set out towards Barry Stone tells the story of these hand-picked Urmia and were caught up in the exodus of Assyrians, veteran soldiers who were sent to the ethnic powder keg after the town was captured by the Ottoman army. About of the Caucasus to preserve British interests. They 80,000 people had fled and were defended by the matched wits with German spies and assassins.
    [Show full text]
  • International Invention of Scientific Journal the March Genocide of 1918 in Baku
    International Invention of Scientific Journal Available Online at http://www.iisj.in eISSN: 2457-0958 Volume 03|Issue 04|April, 2019| The March Genocide of 1918 in Baku Original Article Tural Velizadeh* Department of Political and Social sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan Department of History, Baku State University, Baku, Azerbaijan Abstract Received: February 22, 2019 Accepted: April 13, 2019 Published: April 30, 2019 This article deals with the massacres commited by armenians in Baku in 1918. On July 15, 1918, the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan Republic adopted a *Corresponding Author: decree on the establishment of Extraordinary Investigation Commission (EIC), * TURAL VELIZADEH “to investigate the assaults made on Muslims and their property within the Department of Political and Social entire Caucasus since the beginning of the European war”. The materials of sciences, Western Caspian Extraordinary Investigation Commission are the unique source for University, Baku, Azerbaijan investigating the genocide against Turkish-Muslim population in Azerbaijan from March till September in 1918. These documents are proved arguments Email: [email protected] show that the genocide against Azerbaijanis is one of the horrible tragedies had been rarely met in the history of humanity. We must give due to the first young Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in the most complicated and hardest conditions of its existence and activities as quickly and discreetly reacted to these events and had taken concrete steps. Key Words: genocide, armenians, archive documents, Extraordinary Investigation Commission, Baku, Azerbaijan Introduction The declaration of independence in 1918 enabled “It is already four months, Armenian extorters had Azerbaijan to investigate crimes against Turks and been committing atrocities against the civilian other Muslim population in their homeland.
    [Show full text]