Formation

On 15 November 1917, the delegates of the Caucasus' Christian nations (Russians, Armenians, Georgians and Greeks) met in Tiflis and agreed to create a unified army of ethnically homogeneous units. The Greek Caucasus community numbered approximately 200,000 people and was therefore tasked with forming a division consisting of three regiments. The new units were to protect south Armenia, Georgia and Pontus from the Ottoman Army, the Bolsheviks and Muslim irregulars, while hierarchically belonging to the Army of the Provisional Government. The commander of the Russian Caucasus Army General Michael Przhevalsky welcomed the decision, pledging to recognize the rights of each nation willing to assist the Russian army after the end of the war. On 12 December, Przhevalsky met with the representatives of the Greek military committee consisting of Colonels Michael Ananiadis (Michael Ananiev), Demosthenes Pandazidis and Kilingarov, authorizing the formation of the Greek Caucasus Division.^[6]

The division was formed out of ethnic Greeks serving in the Caucasus, recruits from among the local population including former insurgents and the incorporation of Greeks serving on the Eastern Front was also planned. Its three regiments were stationed at Tiflis, Kars and Tsalka respectively. Each regiment had three battalions of four companies each. The division included an autonomous battalion stationed at Ardahan, a reserve regiment in Batumi, three artillery batteries, one cavalry battalion consisting of two companies and one engineering company. On 29 December, a congress of the Greek community appointed the Russian Army Colonel Ananiadis as the commander of the division with the former artillery Colonel Pandazidis serving as his deputy. Several units were commanded by Russian officers due to a shortage in experienced ethnic Greeks. Equipment was drawn from the 4th Russian Division which was in the middle of demobilization.^[6] The Greek Caucasus Division numbered approximately 3,000 soldiers, four artillery pieces, 16 machine guns and 155 horses.^[7]

The Armistice of Erzincan was signed at Erzincan on 18 December, suspending hostilities between Russia and the Ottomans. Fearing that Russia would drop out of the war, the Unified Allied Command issued a declaration supporting the formation of national volunteers units in the Russian Army, on 23 December. France and Britain also divided the Pontus into zones of responsibility, taking over north and south respectively. The Bolsheviks initially supported the retention of areas captured from the Ottomans during World War I and their autonomization, renouncing those claims after the Erzincan truce. Their calls for the immediate cessation of the war attracted many supporters, leading to mass desertions in the disorganized Russian Army.^[8]

Service

The Greek Caucasus Division, Russian anti-Bolsheviks and a small Georgian unit, were responsible for the protection of all areas between Erzincan and the edge of Russian-held Pontus.^[9] Seven hundred soldiers belonging to the division took part in the defense of Trebizond in conjunction with local insurgents and two companies of Russians and Georgians. The defense was hastily organized and the majority of the defenders were poorly trained, resulting in their defeat at the hands of Ottoman Çetes who massacred the Christian population in the city; attacks on Santa and Rodopolis were repulsed. A new recruitment drive was launched on 1 January 1918, since by that time the division existed only on paper, as many men had defected to the Bolsheviks or served in a tangled web of armed militias. Many members of the Greek community opposed its formation as they feared that it would provoke massacres akin to that in Trebizond. Most recruits originated from villages near army bases or enlisted in order to immediately defect to the Bolsheviks after stealing weapons and equipment. By early March, the division numbered at most 3,000 men, while suffering shortages in weaponry and experienced officers. It did not engage in any battles, limiting its operations to defensive skirmishes while protecting Greek villages and refugee convoys.^[10]

In February 1918, having encountered limited resistance, the Ottoman Army captured Trebizond and Sarıkamış. On 24 February, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic declared independence, initiating peace talks with the Ottomans on 8 March, to renegotiate the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that was signed three days earlier. The treaty between the Central Powers and the Bolsheviks had granted Kars, Ardahan, Pontus and Batumi to the Ottomans . Negotiations broke down over a lack of unity inside the Transcaucasian government, caused by territorial disputes between Georgians and Armenians. The Greeks of Kars were also divided, civilian leaders advocated retreating deeper into the Caucasus and military officials insisted on fighting back against Muslim encroachment. Supplied with information from Turkish intelligence, Kurdish irregulars attacked Giola, Zavod and Ardahan against Greek and Georgian troops. The Kurds signed a truce with the defenders of Ardahan only to break it in a sudden attack, resulting in the disarmament of 200 Greek soldiers and the dissolution of the battalion defending the town. The regiment stationed in Kars prevented the massacre of the local Muslim population by an Armenian militia, then dissolved under the influence of local politicians. Greeks fled Pontus en masse, the remnants of the Greek Caucasus Division protecting them from Turkish and Armenian militia. On 25 March, the division clashed with the army of the Armenian National Congress after the latter attempted to seize their equipment at Karakilisa. On 14 April, the Ottomans occupied Batumi after overrunning a Greek company. On 25 April, the Ottomans seized Kars from the 2nd Greek Regiment and on 15 May, the 2nd Greek Regiment (down to 750 men) was defeated at Alexandropol.^[11]