This promise did not reflect ground conditions. Talaat Pasha's first year as Grand Vizier saw the loss of Jerusalem and Baghdad. However territorial loss in the south also coincided with a crushing diplomatic success with the signing of the Brest Litovsk treaty on 10 March 1918, negotiated by only Talaat himself, resulting in the return of Kars, Batumi, and Ardahan to Ottoman rule after their loss forty years ago. Another treaty with the Caucasian states signed in Batum strengthened the Ottoman's position in a future drive on Baku, which was accomplished by September. At the beginning of January 1918 with the Tsarist Army of the Caucasus departing, Talaat had been influential in pursuing an offensive policy, convinced that despite all the pacifist rhetoric coming from Moscow 'the Russian leopard had not changed its spots'. Spring 1918 was the zenith of Talaat Pasha's political career, followed by a slow realization of defeat in WWI over the summer. In a conversation with Cavid, Talaat felt trapped between three "fires": Enver Pasha, who was becoming increasingly erratic and overly optimistic after the breakthrough in the Caucasus; the new sultan Mehmed VI, an anti-Unionist and a stronger personality than his deceased half brother, and Allied armies advancing from the West and the South. In October 1918, the British defeated both Ottoman armies they faced in the Palestinian Front. Simultaneously on the Macedonian front, Bulgaria capitulated to the allies, leaving no sufficient forces to check an advance on the Ottoman capital. With defeat certain (and growing unrest from years of unfettered corruption) Talaat Pasha and his cabinet announced their resignations on 13 October 1918. The new Grand Vizier Ahmed Izzet Pasha and his government capitulated to the Allies and signed Armistice of Mudros on 30 October, but didn't order Talaat's arrest nor order his extradition from Germany until an Istanbul court demanded it.