Batumi was briefly occupied by Turkey during the Soviet invasion of Georgia in March 1921. On 18 March 1921, the city was recovered by Georgian troops, who then ceded its control to the arriving Soviets. Finally, in the treaty of Kars, Kemal Atatürk ceded Batumi to the Bolsheviks, on the condition that it be granted autonomy, for the sake of the Muslims among Batumi's mixed population. Thus, it became the capital of the Adjar ASSR within the Georgian SSR. During the 1924 August Uprising in Georgia, Batumi remained relatively quiet. On 31 August 1924, the local cell of the anti-Soviet underground organization was destroyed; its leaders, including major general Giorgi Purtseladze (then the chief of staff of the Batum fortifications), were shot. During World War II, the city sent 12,258 soldiers in the Soviet army, and 4,728 never returned home.