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ARMENIA IN MODERN TIMES 311
Erzerum and Erzinjan in January 1916, and Trebizond two
months later, it was the turn of the Turkish population to
flee, lest the Armenians should take vengeance for past mas
sacres. In a wild panic of fear the Turks streamed westward
in the cold of winter, many of them dying after incredible
sufferings and privations in the pathless mountain country.
In some places, no doubt, the Armenian volunteer companies
avenged their countrymen by killing Muhammedans ; but
certainly not to any extent that can be compared with the
Turkish massacres. Thousands of Armenian fugitives now
returned to their hornes from the mountains where they had
been niding, from the Russian side of the frontier, and even
from Mesopotamia. Without delay they set about rebuilding
their devastated villages and farms.
Then came the Russian revolution of March 1917. In
addition to the account given in Chapter IV (pp. 105 ff.) of what
ensued in Transcaucasia, I may add here a few details regarding
Armenia. At the beginning of 191 8 the Turks advanced
again to attack Turkish Armenia. The Armenian troops,
abandoned by the Russians, resisted desperately, while the
Georgians retired, unwilling to fight save for their own country.
On March 11, 191 8, the Turks took Erzerum, and after
occupying the rest of Turkish Armenia advanced against
Kars. Then the Transcaucasion Republic declared its inde
pendence—i.e. of Russia (April 22, 191 8)—and agreed at
last to accept the conditions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
which handed over the Kars region to Turkey. On April
27th the Turks occupied Kars and looted it. New peace
negotiations were begun at Batum on May 11, 191 8 ; and
the Turks now refused to keep the conditions they had
accepted at the peace of Brest-Litovsk, demanding much larger
concessions. They attacked Alexandropol and captured it
on May 15, 191 8. Wherever they advanced there were
fresh massacres of Armenians and fresh horrors, notwithstand
ing the strongest protests from the German Government and
the Supreme Command, which peremptorily demanded that
the Turks should adhere to the peace conditions already
accepted, and retire to the frontiers defined in them. But the
Turks pushed on, looting and massacring as they went. The
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