Battle of Baku

Battle context

The Battle of Baku in August–September 1918 was a conclusive engagement of the Caucasus Campaign within World War I, pitting an Ottoman–Azerbaijani coalition under Nuri Pasha against successive defending forces: first the Bolshevik–ARF Baku Soviet, then British–Armenian–White Russian forces under Lionel Dunsterville. The contest drew Soviet Russia briefly back into the broader conflict and involved force concentrations of 14,000 on the Ottoman–Azerbaijani side against roughly 20,000 defenders under both the Baku Commune and the Centro-caspian Dictatorship, with Central Powers casualties recorded at approximately 2,000. Beyond its World War I dimension, the battle marked the opening of the Armenian–Azerbaijani War, giving the engagement consequences that extended well past the armistice and into the post-war reorganization of the South Caucasus.