Battle of Baku - Prelude

Prelude

The Ottoman Army of Islam was under the command of Nuri Pasha. It was formed in Ganja. It included the Ottoman 5th Caucasian and 15th divisions, and the Azerbaijani Muslim Corps under general Ali-Agha Shikhlinski. There were roughly 14,000 Ottoman troops with 500 cavalrymen and 40 pieces of artillery. 30% of the newly formed army consisted of Ottoman soldiers, the rest being Azerbaijani forces and volunteers from Dagestan.

The Baku forces were commanded by the former Tsarist General Dokuchaev, with his Armenian Chief of Staff, Colonel Avetisov. Under their command were about 6,000 Centrocaspian Dictatorship troops of the Baku Army or Baku Battalions. The vast majority of the troops in this force were Armenians, though there were some Russians among them. Their artillery comprised some 40 field guns. Most of the Baku Soviet troops and practically all their officers were Armenians of Dashnak leanings, and often outright Dashnaks. One of the Red Army commanders was the notorious Amazasp, who had fought as a guerrilla leader against the Turks, and for whom any Muslim was an enemy simply because he was a Muslim.

The British mission, Dunsterforce, was headed by Major-General Lionel Dunsterville, who had arrived to take command of the mission force in Baghdad on 18 January 1918. The first members of the force were already assembled. Dunsterville set out from Baghdad on 27 January 1918, with four NCOs and batmen in 41 Ford vans and cars. The British troops in battle under Dunsterville numbered roughly 1,000. They were supported by a field artillery battery, machine gun section, three armoured cars, and two airplanes. He was to proceed through Persia (began from Mesopotamian Campaign through Persian Campaign) to the port of Anzali.

• Opposing forces

• Dunsterville (far left) with Dunsterforce staff.

• Members of Dunsterforce training troops of the local Baku Army.

• Armenian units drilling in Baku.

• Murad of Sebastia lead his volunteers and died at the Battle of Baku

• Azerbaijani troops enter Baku 1918.jpg

  Azerbaijani troops in Baku