Türkçe TercümeDuring the years of war and revolutions when the hopes of the peoples of the Caucasus flourished to gain their independence, the responsibility for the occupation of the North Caucasus by the Bolshevik forces lay not only with the Red and White Russian imperialism but also, perhaps even more so, with the Menshevik, Musavatist, and Dashnak politicians who were in power in the Trans-Caucasian neighborhood at the time.
The difference in tone of colors that separated the Menshevik Georgian administration from the Bolshevik Russians was so small that it was almost impossible to distinguish. After all, they had acquired their socialist rhetoric under the same roof as Lenin, Trotsky, and Bukharin in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. They were all devoted Marxists. The Musavatist Azerbaijanis were no different ideologically from the Menshevik Georgians. No matter how passionately the Musavatists were attached to their Menshevik friends, the religious and national obsessions of the Mensheviks were the biggest factor that made this love impossible. As for the Dashnak Armenians, there was no need to say much. They had always been Russia's fifth column in the region, and nothing else could be expected from them other than representing Russian, British, and French interests in the region.
The Mensheviks took the historical opportunities that were missed in Trebizond and Batumi in 1918 to the next level with the treasonous treaty they signed with the Bolsheviks on May 7, 1920. As everyone knows, the Caucasus was trampled under the boots of the Bolsheviks' Red Armies in 1921, and all these factions, along with other groups, were forced to leave their homelands and went into exile.
The Mensheviks did not make their minds up in exile either. They put the Caucasian cause under the hegemony of supposedly “friendly” foreign powers at every opportunity, deepened the distinctions among the Caucasian political émigré groups, and ruined the anti-Soviet front. The common anti-Soviet movement that was established under the name of the Promethean Front was disintegrated by the Mensheviks in the second half of the 1920s to gain control over all émigré institutions. The Caucasian political émigré groups had trembled by unimaginable scandals for twenty years due to the provocations that the Mensheviks inflicted with the help of the financial support of the Poles.
They followed an ideology that was of Bolshevik Russian origin and had no national affiliation. A group from the North Caucasian émigré circles, who had no political doctrine and most of whom had worked in Denikin's Volunteer Army and continued to chant "God Save the Tsar" during their life in immigration, had also been attracted to their side. The North Caucasians among the Prometheans were tossed around like leaves in the wind under the patronage of Poles and damaged the Caucasian freedom cause as much as those Transcaucasian political groups.
In fact, the issue of these so-called “socialist” groups was not ideological. Their aim was nothing more than to use the Caucasian freedom movement as a tool for border disputes with Turkey. This was the sole reason why the Trabzon and Batum conferences ended in a deadlock in 1918. This was why Bekir Sami Kundukh’s efforts for reconciliation were thwarted during the early days in Paris in 1919. This was the real reason behind opening the doors of the Caucasus to the Bolshevik Russians. This was the main reason why they manipulated the Caucasian political émigré movement throughout the 1920s. This was the sole reason why they tried to steal a role and undermine a sacred purpose with the so-called Caucasian Confederation Pact initiative in the early 1930s. When World War II appeared on the horizon, this was again the reason behind their efforts to be included in the German-Japanese-Italian Axis and to betray the Poles, whose financial resources they had sacked for years.
Indeed, during these turbulent years, when Turkey had not yet made it clear which team it would choose in the alliance games, they prepared a memorandum that was like an expression of the boundless hatred they had cultivated within themselves for the past 20 years against Turkey and addressed it to the governments of Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, and Warsaw.
Jordania, who fled to the USA, had stated, “The German state, which destroys the independence of free nations with such stupidity, cannot contribute to the restoration of Georgia’s independence. Our future was and will remain dependent only on democratic forces that can respect the freedom of others.” However, towards the end of 1937, the certain Jordania tried to get closer to the Axis powers and believed that he would resolve the territorial dispute with Turkey, which dates back to 1918, with their support in the upcoming war.
By benefiting from the popularity of the Armenian Dashnaks in Italy and the Armenian-Georgian Union alliance, he provoked Italy against Turkey to seize control of the Mediterranean. For this purpose, Jordania, together with the other Menshevik leader Akakiy Chkhenkeli and Georges Gvazava, prepared a memorandum, under which they refrained from putting their signatures, and sent it to the aforementioned governments. An Italian Newspaper, Corriere Diplomatico e Consolare, which had close ties with the government in Rome, publicly revealed the memorandum:
The Caucasus had as neighbors on both sides two great powers in a perpetual state of rivalry and warfare: in North Russia, South Persia, and Turkey. The first-named was bearing down on the Caucasus with all possible speed, to open up the way for herself to force the frontiers of the rival powers and subjugate them. The independent nations of the Caucasus stood in her way, they barred the way to the South to the strongest power, Russia, and thus protected the weaker ones, Persia and Turkey, from invasion.
Under the circumstances what should have been the policy of these powers regarding the Caucasus? It is obvious that Russia's interests demanded the suppression of this barrier and its transformation into a Russian military base; while the interests of the other two, on the contrary, demanded the consolidation and continuance of Caucasian liberty which she considered their best means of defense against Russian expansion.
However, this problem was not understood either by Persia or by Turkey; they adopted towards the Caucasus a policy analogous to that of Russia and attempted to conquer it.
Armenia had been subjugated a long time ago, and Azerbaidjan became a tributary of Persia; there remained in Transcaucasia only one free country, Christian Georgia. The two states, rivals hitherto, joined up to put an end to the matter. According to the treaty they signed in 1636, the greater part of oriental Georgia, Karthli, and Kakhetia were proclaimed Persian dependencies. The rest, Samske-Saatabago (M'tskhetia) and the whole of Occidental Georgia were left under the Turkish protectorate. Having arrived at this decision, the two powers did not follow the same policy concerning Georgia. Given that Persia's frontiers did not touch those of Georgia, she only sought to receive a fixed tribute from the territory to which she pretended.
Turkey, on the contrary, touched Georgia's frontiers which made invasion easier. Her line of conduct was the following: conquest and progressive annexation of the territory, and Moslemising of the Christian, Georgian inhabitants. She worked in this direction during two centuries (the 17th and 18th) and at the dawn of the 19th century she held in her hands a quarter of Georgia, viz. all the regions of the South-West: Ardahan, M'tskhetia, Oltici, Arthvine, and Batum, with the Georgian population Moslemised by force. Having seized, thus, the cradle of Georgian culture, M'tskhetia, she menaced thereby the heart of Georgia, Karthlia, and Imeretia. The Pasha of Akalcik became the principal agent for the assimilation of these regions. Several Turkish garrisons were introduced into Imeretia. It is this policy about the Caucasus which determined the fate of Persia and Turkey.
Threatened in this way on all sides, Christian Georgia found herself obliged, to preserve her physical existence, to ask Russia for protection, and to open her frontiers to her. Established in Tiflis, Moscow took to herself different parts of the Caucasus. An immediate neighbor now to Persia and Turkey, Moscow went in for interminable wars with all these countries which all ended in her favor.
There remained in the North of the Caucasus two independent countries: Circassia and Daghestan. Of these two, Circassia alone was under the Turkish protectorate, although England had declared her independence in 1838, through her Prime Minister, Palmerston. But Turkey dragged her into the Crimean War along with her, and when the Turkish coalition came out victorious, Circassia was not even mentioned in the Peace Treaty of Paris in 1856. Thus Turkey left her ally to the mercy of Russia, receiving other compensations in exchange. Moscow took a ghastly revenge: nearly the entire Circassian population was deported by sea to Turkey. Thus did independent Circassia fall, and this was the end of that noble and chivalrous people.
It is evident that Turkey's Caucasian policy was characterized by one permanent trait: the negation of the independence of the Caucasian states while availing herself of these nations and territories for her interests at the moment. Did the change of regime bring with it any modification of this policy of the Sultans? None. The recent past showed us that.
In 1917 a revolution on a large scale broke out in Russia. Three nations of Transcaucasia created an independent federative state with a Diet in Tiflis. The North Caucasus was to adhere soon to this federation. Russia found itself thrown out of the Caucasus, which was back to its old position before the 19th century. One might suppose that Enver's and Kemal Pasha's Turkey would have availed themselves of this new situation to help the independent Caucasus to consolidate its position, but quite the contrary came to pass: Enver Pasha's army abandoned the Mesopotamian front and invaded the Caucasus, annexed Armenia, Azerbaijan, all the Moslem part of Georgia, and finally was stopped by the Germans at the very doors of Christian Georgia. The result of this aggression was the dislocation of the Transcaucasian Federation and the abandonment of the respective fates of the three nationalities composing it.
The Entente came victorious out of the Great War: Turkey was obliged to leave the Caucasus; three independent states arose: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, all three recognized by Europe de facto, and Georgia de-jure; constructive work began at once, while civil war raged in Russia. The regime of Enver Pasha in Turkey was replaced by the nationalist and European regime of Kemal Pasha. However, the Caucasian policy did not vary. In 1920, under the pressure of the emissaries from Angora, its co-religionary, Azerbaidjan, opened its doors to the Bolshevik armies from Moscow; the national government without striking a blow surrendered the power to the Moscovite emissaries, and Russia became again the direct neighbour of Persia and Turkey. The fall of Azerbaidjan determined also the fate of the other Republics.
In February 1921 the Moscovite armies invaded Georgia by way of Azerbaijan. At that tragic moment when the battle was raging in Tiflis-February 1923-the Georgian Government unexpectedly received an ultimatum from Angora demanding the immediate evacuation of the districts of Artahan and Arthvine, and without waiting for the answer the Turkish armies invaded these regions. Georgia caught between two fires, but reckoning that the principal front was, however, the Moscow one, protested to Turkey and ordered her units of frontier guards, quite insignificant by the way, to go back into the interior of the country. Encouraged by this, Turkey made an incursion into the district of Batum, and while the Georgian army was evacuating the capital and falling back towards occidental Georgia, to make it their base for action against the Russians, the Turks attacked it in the rear, invaded Batum and declared the region annexed to Turkey. The Georgian army was obliged to go to the rescue of this town, drive out the aggressor, and preserve this district for the Georgian nation.
It has been seen by what followed, that, during the Russo-Georgian war, the Government of Angora was carrying on secret discussions with the Government in Moscow, to obtain the annexation of the Georgian territory. The result of these discussions was the treaty between Turkey and Russia on March 16th, that is, at that moment when the Georgian national Government was still struggling to defend the country. Moscow gave Turkey the Georgian territory of Artahan and Arthvine. Thus did the Moscow-Angora block crush the independence of Georgia and forced its lawful Government to seek shelter abroad.
On the 13th Oktober of that same year, 1921, Moscow and Angora made a new treaty on Turkish territory, at Kars, into which came that first paragraph of the Moscow treaty. Angora recognized, moreover, the suppression of the independence of the Transcaucasian Republics, and repudiated all the international treaties concluded by them or concerning them (see articles I, II, IV, XIII).
That is how, through the ages and up to the present day, Turkey fought against the solidarity and independence of the Caucasian nations, preferring its immediate neighborhood to Russia.
Although Persia held out no help to the Caucasus, she had, at least, no territorial intentions against the country: she remained confined within her frontiers and abandoned the anti-Caucasian policy.
There are only two pretenders to the Caucasus; Russia on the one side, and the Caucasian nations on the other. Will Turkey follow the Caucasian policy of Persia and be content with her frontiers, or will she follow the policy bequeathed by her Sultans? That is the question of whose definite solution hangs the problem of the Caucasus: will it be free and independent, or will it stay in subjection to Russia?
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In the same days, the Polish government, which was trying to normalize its relations with Turkey, was preparing to ask the Prometheus Group to resume its intelligence activities in Turkey. However, with the disclosure of the memorandum, a great storm of anger against the Mensheviks broke out both in Turkey and in other addressee countries. To control the anger of Warsaw and Ankara, Noy Jordania said that the declaration was written by an ordinary historian and denied that they had written it themselves. The denial on the subject, signed by the Caucasus Confederation Council, stated the following:
The Council of the Caucasian Confederation, confirming the information given to the Governments of Italy, Germany, and Poland by individuals who harbor hostile tendencies towards Türkiye and which has appeared in the press, declares categorically that no such note was ever sent by the Council or any of its sections (Azerbaijan, Georgia, the North Caucasus) to the above-mentioned governments. The Council hereby reiterates that friendly relations with Turkey are one of the foundations of the future independence and prosperity that the Caucasian peoples hope to establish.
Of course, it would not be that easy for the Menshevik Georgian leader to get away with this scandal. First of all, sensible Georgian intellectuals such as Shalva Amiredjibi, Zurab Avalishvili, and General Kvinitadze reacted to this irresponsible behavior in their articles and condemned Jordania and his team, who attempted such an adventure to ruin the brotherhood of Turkish and Georgian peoples against each other for the sake of their political ambitions.
However, even such a teaching would not be enough to dissuade the Mensheviks, who made a habit of denying themselves continuously, back from their mistakes. In the early months of World War II, and while the shock caused by the scandal of 1937 had not yet been erased, a “Declaration” containing intense hostility towards Turkey was prepared by the Mensheviks to be distributed in Turkey in March 1940. It was, of course, the Molotov-Ribbentrop, The Soviet-German Non-Aggression Treaty that encouraged the Mensheviks to dare such a move. This would go down in history as a striking example of the boundlessness of the hostility of the Menshevik mentality towards Turkey:
Awareness of our national debt:
The origin, language, literature, and culture of the Georgian nation, and finally the Georgian land, is a great historical truth worthy of pride. To realize the freedom of our noble nation, the true sons of Georgia must put aside the factionalism and conflicts among themselves, unite all their forces, and work appropriately.
*Our position in the clash of international forces:
To avoid going astray in the struggle of international forces that divide the world into various armed fronts, it is our duty to closely and carefully examine these forces.
The first front: It is composed of enormous, strong, and well-fed nations. The governments of the said nations, with their endless and vast resources of wealth, strive to maintain their hegemony over the world and to prevent the unjust system from being shaken and dictating the status quo by force.
The second front: It consists of the powerful, large but starving nations opposing the first front, which are suffering from scarcity of land and raw materials. They put forward the principle of "life distance" against status quo.
Third Front: On this front, small states, some well-fed and some starving and dissatisfied, are gathered, and they strive not to fall victim to the great states without exception.
Fourth front: Here too, there are small nations whose cultures are worthy of respect, but who are weak, oppressed, and thirsty for national freedom, waiting for an opportunity to break the chains tied by the great powers.
Here is the current situation of the forces struggling with each other. The oppressed and enslaved small nations and Georgia, which occupies the first place among them, are obliged to seek the most beneficial means by choosing one of these great forces without criticism to gain their independence in the great conflict between two enormous fronts.
* Russia is the enemy of Georgian independence:
Probably Georgia will remain under Russian rule for a long time, but we can assume that Russia will no longer be able to kill the Georgian nation. Since it is very important to recognize the countries that can truly have their national rights by separating from this empire, it is necessary to follow the possible collapse of Russia with great attention.
* Türkiye is the enemy of the Georgian nation:
In this terrible topic, we see Turkey's criminal ambitions before us. If the collapse of Russia occurs before the collapse of Turkey, the Pan-Turanists, who are formed on Islamism, are undoubtedly preparing to deal the most terrible blow to Georgia in today's international situation. As a result of the Turkish and Iranian hostility towards Georgia that has been going on for many centuries and the repeated savage invasions and plunder, they have forced the Georgian nation to collapse and seek refuge in the barbaric Russian domination. There is no need to recall the historical ambitions of the Pan-Turan ideology. It will be sufficient to recall the period when Germany and Austria recognized Georgia's independence within the old Russian borders when the World War started. Despite this, it is known that Turkey aimed to plunder and occupy Georgia after the war. To prevent this attack, the German military representative General von Lossov ordered the railway line to be destroyed at the Notanebi station to prevent the Turkish army from entering Georgia. However, the Turks occupied Meskhetia and Armenia and entered Bakou. Although defeated in the great war, thanks to the Treaty of Lausanne and the energy and intelligence of its great man Atatürk, a new Turkey was born on the ruins of the old Turkey as a strong foundation of the Pan-Turan ideology. This new Turkey stabbed Georgia in the back instead of the help it promised against the Red armies during the Bolshevik invasion. Although Turkey was not successful in occupying Batum, it occupied the southern provinces of Georgia. Finally, we are not unaware of the idea that Turkey, not content with this, probably developed after the collapse of the Soviet regime to occupy the entire Caucasus.
There are more than a million Georgians living in Turkey and they are all considered Turks because they are Muslims. Because the aim of the Pan-Turan ideology is not tolerant of having foreign subjects in the country. The only reason why the non-Turkish element has not been destroyed in Turkey so far is because they are Muslim. There are really no Armenians in the Pan-Turan understanding. As for the Georgian issue, it is considered a kind of internal issue even in the Caucasus. According to some, it will probably grant the Georgians a kind of limited autonomy, but this will only be limited to the provinces of Imereti and Svaneti.
It is understood that the Turks want to take the whole Caucasus, Crimea, and even other Muslim countries under Turkish rule. The secret representative of our friend Ukraine in Turkey, the late Mirsky, who informed us of these secret plans of Turkey, was in close contact with the high Turkish political and military circles. We must pay attention to a very serious issue: That is the loss of Turkey's interest in its old friends, the Russians. According to the agreement signed with England and France, there is no doubt about who Turkey will be directed against. If the ongoing war spreads to the Balkans and Russia helps the Germans, Turkey will immediately join the war. In fact, preparations are already being made for this purpose. Aid is already being given by France and England, with money and weapons provided. At the same time, the English armies are gathering in Palestine and the French armies in Syria. Turkey is receiving the most perfect war machines from England and France in the current situation.
Taking advantage of all this, Turkey aims to annex the Caucasus. Because the Muslims of the Caucasus, the Azeris, and the Mountaineers are helping it on this path. The oppressed nations, tired of the red terror, are trying to save themselves from the Bolshevik yoke. However, the poor people have no idea about the outcome and projects prepared by the Pan-Turan ideology.
Georgians should not believe in open or secret Turanists and Islamists. Because they are enemies of Armenians and especially Georgians. Because one day Georgians will prevent Turkish domination from establishing itself in the Caucasus.
If the decline of Soviet Russia is essential for the safety of Georgians, the disappearance of Turkey is more crucial for Georgia. We should not forget that two states are a mortal fear for Georgia. We must choose and select one of these oppressors, namely the Russia we are accustomed to. Otherwise, the sword of the Pan-Turan ideology that destroyed the Greeks, Armenians, and Kurds may cause us the same fate.
* About the tactics of Georgian politicians between two ideologies.
One of the ideologies that divides Europe into two fronts is conservative and pro-status quo, led by England and France. As for the new ideology, those who started it were Germany and Italy, who have been fighting for "living space." Although England and France have promised Georgian independence, who can guarantee that these states will not give Georgia away to the Turks in their plans to encourage Turkey to fight against Russia?
Therefore, only Germany and Italy can ensure the safety of Georgia. Therefore, we Georgians must work with these two states and desire their success.
The most striking thing about the declaration, aside from its conjunctural opportunism and the hateful language it used, was that it summarized the entire Menshevik idea in a single sentence:
“We must choose and select one of these oppressors, namely Russia we are accustomed to...”
Even after three centuries, some things never change...
Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 1 March 2025