Battle of Sardarabad

Significance

The Battle of Sardarabad, fought from 21 to 29 May 1918, halted an Ottoman advance that had penetrated to within approximately 40 kilometres of Yerevan during the Caucasus campaign of World War I. Armenian regular units and militia, numbering around 9,000, inflicted an estimated 5,500 casualties on an Ottoman force of 1,500–3,000, stopping the invasion of Eastern Armenia. Because Yerevan lay so close to the fighting, a different outcome would have eliminated the remaining Armenian population and military capacity in the region. The battle instead preserved the conditions under which Armenian political leadership could assert sovereignty, directly enabling the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia and the subsequent Treaty of Batum, through which the Ottoman Empire extended recognition to the new Armenian state.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (11)