Transcaucasia - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Antiquity with the XIXe century

Since antiquity, this ponto-Caspian isthmus was used for the movement of the goods, but also of the armies. It was always a strategic territory coveted by the powers which were with the periphery of this unit. These powers are the Ottoman Empire, the Perse at the time Achéménide especially and the Russian S in North. Among the great names which passed in the Caucasus, one can quote Alexandre Large the, Marco Polo (since it was the road of spices). One can quote multiple episodes and as large private individuals the cruel Invasions of the end of antiquity and beginning of the Moyen-âge, with in particular the invaders Tatares, Mongolian S like all the others Barbare S which, pushed by the famine generally, crossed this area with their armies creating of the considerable destruction. The Romains also went until there, there is in Arménie a Roman temple of the IIIe century after Jesus Christ who testifies to the interest of this area for the trade. As of the XVIIIe century, all the large travellers move towards this area, quote only among them Lord Byron. It is an area which one wanted to conquer, to colonize for reasons strategic or economic because apart from these particular fields, the Caucasian area is relatively not very gravitational.

To go from the Mediterranean to the large plains of the Central Asia, the the Caucasus is a point of passage. It is a contact point between the people Russian, Perse and Turkish. It attracted commercial people like the Vénitiens and the Génois. This zone has a considerable interest which causes many covetousnesses still today. One finds traces of very old Caravansérail S in now inaccessible places because the roads are cut fault of the too important cost of their maintenance. This function of passage and installation was made profitable by Russia at the time Tsar ist. At that time, Russia is in full territorial expansion towards its peripheries that it is in Far East, in Central Asia or in the Caucasus. The difficulty in this particular case was to cross the solid mass itself and the Russians colonized the septentrional edges first of all and they then passed by the maritime edges. The gate of Derbent close to the Daguestan is a passage very difficult to cross with feet by troops, one thus passed by the sea to circumvent the difficulty. This territory was interesting because of the mountainous character. With that the interest of the meridionality of the Transcaucasia is added, the climatic interest of a South. It was the opening towards a southernmost space. There was moreover one strategic reason: Persians and the Othomans were relatively hostile to the Russians and to control the solid mass represented a good means of controlling the area. This is why between 1840 and 1870, the projection of the Russians is done gradually, with difficulties, and by the installation of garrisons. One places outposts including one important was with Gumri to control the territory. In Gumri the garrison of Alexandropol (name of the Tsar) was behavior by the Cosaque S, of the soldier-peasants of the army of the Tsar. They had like mission of emphasizing these grounds. One can also quote the construction of a military road passing by collars going of Vladicaucase until Tbilissi. It was a road suspended in the mountain. There is a stake of control of the incursions Persian and Othoman, peripheral populations, which could be done only by the occupation of spaces. One sends sectarian Russian populations to occupy this space. They are orthodoxe dissidents whose Tsar wanted to get rid, the Molokanes authoritatively were thus installed in the Caucasus by the Tsar.

The effects of these various elements, in fact the Eastern influences will mark the Caucasus. When Persians occupied the area, the territory was cut out in several principalities. There are also Othoman influences which marked the culture and which resulted in particular in Bazar S, large markets which were and meeting crossing points of different populations. These bazaars completely disappeared with the Soviet time . At the current populations, one finds characters Eastern and European. The whole of the Caucasus is a zone of contacts between Orient and Occident where the characteristics of the two cultures are found. But these characters will be relatively attenuated under the Soviet era, nevertheless certain original features remain.

From 1909 to 1918

In the years which follow the fall of the sultanate of the Ottoman Empire and the advent of the government Young person-Turks in the Empire (1909), the Caucasus of the south east place of disorders between powerful the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, which find opposite during the First World War.

Following the revolution of October 1917 in Russia, the Russian troops which had progressed in Othoman territory withdraw from the Caucasus and leave the three countries transcaucasiens disorganized and without government. It is thus on November 28th, 1917 that Armenians, Tatares and Géorgiens is linked to train a Parliament of Transcaucasia with Tiflis (Tbilissi), called the Seïm , which gives rise to a single government. Little time afterwards, the Armistice of Erzinghian is signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, on December 18th, 1917. Hostile with the Bolsheviks and threatened by the progression of the Turks, the Republic of Transcaucasia is found insulated and weak. By signing the Treated of Brest-Litovsk, Russia reassigns in Turkey of the territories of Transcaucasia, putting at evil the possibility of a true State transcaucasien. Forced to enter in talks, Transcaucasiens meet the Turks with Trébizonde. April 22nd 1918, the independent Transcaucasia autoproclame, and disputes of this fact certain territories acquired by Turkey in the Caucasus. Of course this new State is recognized, neither by the Russians nor by the Ottoman Empire. This last takes possession the same year of the territories negotiated in Brest-Litovsk, which enable them to concentrate their efforts of war on the Persian face , against the Britanniques.

Vis-a-vis the conflicts, with their insulation in the area and their military inferiority, the people transcaucasiens cannot maintain a great cohesion between them. Indeed, the Azeri , Moslems, are historically close to the Turks, Géorgiens are due of good relationships with Germany allied to the Ottoman Empire, whereas the Armenians, victims of the genocide, are resolutely opposed to the Turks. Also on May 26th 1918, Seïm recognizes “divergences radical on the question of war and peace between the people which had created the independent Republic transcaucasienne” . Georgia proclaims in first its independence this day, imitated by Azerbeïdjan (May 27th) then Arménie (May 28th). The latter signs peace with the Ottoman Empire, at the price of a considerable loss of its territory.

Soviet period

After the end of the war and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, part of the Caucasus whose Arménie passes under French Britannique control then. In 1920, the Traité of Sevres is signed and establishes the borders of Arménie. However a Turkish insurrection is not long in being born, directed by Mustafa Kemal, which rejects the terms of this treaty. This movement independandist reconquers it quickly Anatolia and attacks Arménie in September 1920, with the support of its new Soviet ally . December 29th 1922, the countries of the Caucasus join the USSR under the name of Federative Socialist République Soviet Transcaucasienne , while most of Arménie as defined by the treaty of Sevres is found under the very young banner of the République of Turkey. The Soviet Republic transcaucasienne leaves place in 1936 with three Soviet socialist Republics: RSS of Georgia, Azerbaïdjan and Arménie.

The Caucasus is today an axis of circulation deprived of means of transport, it was blocked during 70 years by old the Iron curtain which locked this ancestral axis of circulation. One did not pass any more until the years approximately 1990. This axis of North-South circulation lost during 70 years its function of exchange. This function of exchange is in the course of restoration gradually. The road axes and railway of the ex-USSR are not operational any more, they are unsuited since they were conceived to make the turn of the Soviet Union and are thus inoperative for exchanges out of the old iron curtain. The plain of the Araxe which was an old axis of communication (it is by there that Alexandre the Large one had passed) belonged to the iron curtain and was completely deserted, plus nothing could pass there.

Simple: South Caucasus

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