The Imperial Transformation of a Russian-Occupied Ottoman City during the First World War

Abstract

The Russian Caucasian army occupied a considerable territory of the Ottoman empire during the First World War from 1915 until the withdrawal of the Russian military forces in 1918, after Soviet Russia’s acceptance of the victory of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. The Russian military, the Russian administration in the Caucasus, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture had differing views on the future of the occupied territories regarding their annexation to the Russian empire. Officially the area was declared to be ‘Areas of Turkey Occupied in Accordance with the Law of War’, in which the Russian occupying powers had the right to implement all policies to ensure public order but also had to respect the laws in force in the country. Despite the lack of a policy of immediate annexation, several factors led to a quick transformation of Ottoman territory into a Russian territory. The Ottoman state had lost several important cities in the course of the Balkan wars in 1912–13 which also rapidly lost their Ottoman characteristics. The transformation of Ottoman cities in the Balkans was driven by nationalist policies and accompanied by ethnic cleansing of Muslim populations. The transformation that happened in the territory under the occupation of Russian Caucasian Army was an imperial transformation as will be analysed in this article, using a case study of the coastal Ottoman city of Trabzon.