New-York tribune., 1916-07-27
The Fall of Erzingan.

Russia's military recovery-the wonder
Of the closing months of the second year
e. the World War-had its first manifes-
tation on the Caucasus front. When the
Grand Duke Nicholas took Erzerum last
February he demonstrated that Russia,
overwhelmed in the preceding summer in
Poland, the Baltic Provinces, Galicia and
Volhynia, was again to become a military
factor of vital Importance.
Erzerum fell at time when the
fortunes of the Allies were at their lowest
ebb. Russia was standing on the defen-
sive on her Western front, holding lines
well within her own territory. The
French and British had been unable to
make anv headway with their offensives in
France. The Gallipoli expedition had
proved a fasco and the peninsula had
been evacuated by the Allied armies. The
Teutonic- Bulgarian promenade through
Serbia. Montenegro and Albania had just
been finished in blaze of glory. The
British army at Kut-el-Amara was being
slowly starved into surrender.
In the midst Of all these failures and
oisappointments the capture of Erzerum
stood out in brilliant relief. 1t was
great stroke, carried through in the face
Of enormous difficulties in the way of
transport through a wild, mountainous
region, still in the grip of mid-winter 1t
1ut new heart into the Allies, for 1t meant
that Turkey, flushed with victory at Gallip-
oil and on the Tigris, would no longer
be able to plan a campaign against Egypt
retaining a vast British garrison there,
but would be obliged to turn to the north
east and fight to keep the Russians from
overrunning the whole Of Armenia.
The Turkish armies in Armenia and
Kurdistan were heavily reinforced. But
they have been unable TO check the Rus
sian invasion. Trebizond, on the Black
Sea. northwest Of Erzerum, fell in the
early spring. Baiburt, between Erzerum
and Trebizond, next passed into the Grand
Dukes hands, and now Erzingan, about
eighty miles nearly due west of Erzerum,
has been captured. This town was an i'm
portant military base, the last left to the
Turks in Western Armenia. The next
concentration centre available is Sivas,
about 100 miles further west, within the
t-..,,l, Mo- of cio Minor
Armenia has now been practically re-
deemed from Turkish rule. A change IN
the map Of Turkey-in-Asia has been
effected which is sure TO outlast the war.
For, whatever other recessions Of con-
quered territory may take place, 1t is in
conceivable that Armenia will ever be re-
subjected to the Turkish yoke. The blood
of too many victims Of Turkish brutality
and fanatcism would cry out against such
a betrayal of humanity.
No other infamy Of the war has been
quite so shameless as the wholesale
massacre by the Turks of the helpless
population Of Armenia. 1t was as If
Turkish bigotry felt that it was seizing a
last opportunity to despoil and extermi-
nate a subject race which has suffered
more, perhaps, than any other subject
race in the empire from Turkish say
agery The sword fell without mercy and
without discrimination. That it shall
never fall again is the verdict of the
history that is now in the making in the
Erzingan region.
How far the Russian advance into Asia
Minor will be pushed will depend, appar-
emily, on military developments on the
European fronts. If the deadlock in Europe
holds through another winter, Russia viii
probably drive westward through Asia
Minor toward Angora, which is the head
Of a railroad line to Constantinople. At
Sivas a railroad runs northward to the
Black Sea port of Samsoun. Sivas would
therefore furnish an admirable base for
Russian operations, since Russian control
Of the Black Sea is no longer seriously
challenged.
Sivas is almost due north of Adana, on
the Mediterranean littoral, through which
the Constantinople- Bagdad railroad runs.
Were the Western Allied powers to attack
this point, the Russians holding Sivas, the
Turkish armies on the Irak front bag
dad) and in Syria would be practically cut
of from Asia Minor and Constantinopls.
AS a subsidiary operation campaign
against Turkey on these lines would open
.up great possibilities. But it is obvious
that such an undertaking would be pre-
missed on a return of deadlock conditions
in Europe, the present great offensive hav-
ing failed TO bring about decision.
Russia at Erzingan, however, has