There does exist, I believe, a narrow passage through an irregular valley between the Deveh Boyun main ridge and the northern wall. But this approach by the flank is commanded by some of the forts already mentioned. Nor would the fate of Erzerum be necessarily determined if both the ridge and the works which protect it had been occupied by the enemy after a series of frontal attacks and great loss of life. There would remain the defences of the Top Dagh, a hill mass, or, as they would say in South Africa, a series of kopjes, separated from the Deveh Boyun by the valley of a small tributary to the Euphrates derived from the wall of mountain on the south. The Top Dagh bristles with forts, of which the most conspicuous are Forts Mejidieh and Azizieh. It immediately abuts on the enceinte of the city which it screens from attack from the east. The city lies with its head upon the talus or accumulated rubble which fans out from the heights on the south. Its feet touch the floor of the plain.
Under modern conditions Erzerum is by far the most important strategical position throughout the length and breadth of the country described in this work. The heights confining the plain on the south are in fact the edge of the great block of tableland interposed between the plain of Mush and the northern capital. Although the ground mass of that lofty stage is composed of stratified and old igneous rocks, yet more recent eruptive volcanic action has played an important part in its configuration. To this agency are due the bold mountains along its northern edge which constitute such a noble background to the town. The most conspicuous peak is that of the Eyerli Dagh, or saddle mountain, so called from the shape of its summit. The loftiest is situated a few miles further east, and stands a little back from the line of heights. It has an elevation of 10,690 feet above the sea, or of 4500 feet above the city. It bears the same name as that of the steep ascent to the plateau, and is known as the Palandöken, or saddle shifter. Between these two commanding peaks is placed a cirque or huge basin from which the detritus is emptied into the plain. It has been supposed that the peaks are only the upstanding sides of a huge broken-down crater represented by the cirque. It seems more probable, however, that this great hollow is due to erosive agencies, and it may originally have been commenced by glacial action.
Standing on the roof of your house in Erzerum, you can scarcely conceive the approach of an invader by a turning movement across those heights. It is, indeed, no easy matter to discover any natural passage; but there are in fact four. The most easterly is Aghzi Achik (his mouth is open—though I cannot agree that such is the case.) It leads over to some villages in Tekman. Further west is the valley called Abdurrahman Gazi after a holy man, reputed to have been the standard-bearer of the prophet, whose tomb is a favourite resort in summer. Next comes the Palandöken, grazing the peak upon its western slopes after finding a way along the eastern declivities of the cirque. The fourth and most westerly is that of Kirk Deïrmen, or the forty mills. Of these the only approach of any importance is that of Palandöken. It constitutes the summer route to the districts on the south. The pass, just west of the peak, has an elevation of 9780 feet, and is commanded on either side by two modern forts. A metalled road, constructed during recent years, at once connects these important outposts with the city and affords tolerable gradients to caravans. As you examine the ground in this direction you observe a fortified hill on the south-west of the enceinte; it is called the Keremitlu Dagh.
The wall on the north of the plain is scarcely less impenetrable, though Nature has cloven it almost through by the defile known as the Gurgi Boghaz, or Georgian gates, down which flows the infant stream of the Euphrates and is carried the road from Olti. But the portion of the Russian possessions from which it leads are mountainous and poor in supplies, and the narrows are blocked on the Turkish side by modern fortifications. In a geographical and geological sense this northern barrier corresponds to that on the south of the depression. A plateau-like character is not one of its least pronounced features—a feature which is presented with startling fidelity in the outline on the north of the plain of Pasin, where the heights are called Kargabazar ([Fig. 163], p. 193). West of the Gurgi Boghaz they are broken into peaks, of which the most symmetrical is the beautiful cone of Sheikhjik—a constant source of admiration to an inhabitant of Erzerum. It consists of a mass of trachyte which has welled up from the middle of a crater.[1] As these heights extend westwards they have been less subjected to eruptive disturbances; and the fine landmarks of the Akhbaba Dagh, the Jejen Dagh and the Kop Dagh are composed of non-volcanic rocks. But these eminences serve to accentuate the prevailing flatness of the outline, which remains the outline of a block of tableland. Of little comparative width, this mass declines upon the north to the valley of the Chorokh.
Erzerum, it will have been seen, is almost as difficult to get round as it should be impossible to take by direct assault from the east. If only Turkey were a naval power, able to cope with her adversary by sea, it would be a long time before this bulwark of her Asiatic empire could be broken down by a Russian attack. Herein lies the value to Turkey of help from a first-rate naval Power and the hopelessness of her position should it not be forthcoming. With her fleet in undisputed possession of the Black Sea, Russia might laugh at the irresistible defences of Erzerum. It would only be necessary to hold the garrison by an advance on the side of Pasin; and the real attack, if it were ever made, would come from the west, the vulnerable side, delivered by a column which should have been landed at the port of Trebizond, and which there would be nothing to prevent marching to Erzerum along the chaussée. Sevastopol and Odessa rather than Kars and Erivan are the storm centres from which will be let loose the forces that will sweep the Ottoman Empire out of Asia, when we shall be confronted with a brand-new set of barriers, precluding for the second time in history the entrance of commerce and enlightenment into these magnificent territories. In taking leave of this part of the subject, I must not omit to mention the route which a Russian army might be expected to follow in its progress westwards after the fall of Erzerum. As far as Erzinjan the course of the Euphrates would in general be followed, when the northern border heights would be crossed and the entry to Asia Minor effected by way of Karahisar. There are no difficulties to traffic along this avenue. On the other hand, an advance from Mush, the side of the southern depression, could only be undertaken by mountain paths above the course of the Murad, which have never been touched by an engineer. It is therefore probable that the tide of war would be diverted for some time to the lowlands, when it might threaten the south-eastern districts of Asia Minor from the side of Diarbekr.
On three occasions, all during the course of the present century, Erzerum has been at the mercy of Russian armies. In 1829 it was actually taken by Marshal Paskevich, whose troops penetrated as far north as Gümüshkhaneh and to within eighteen miles of Trebizond.[2] Recovered by Turkey at the ensuing peace, it was threatened by a similar fate after the fall of Kars in November 1855. It was only saved by the Russian reverses in other quarters and by the early termination of the war (Treaty of Paris, March 1856). In 1877 the Russians forced the Deveh Boyun barrier, which in those days was unprovided with proper defences; but they met with a serious repulse in an attempt to storm the forts on the eastern flank of the enceinte. The investment was not completed until the month of January 1878; and, although the place was held by their armies as a material guarantee during the negotiations for peace, it was retained by the Sultan under the terms of the treaties of San Stefano (March 1878) and Berlin (July 1878). Since the conclusion of that campaign the advantages of the position have for the first time been turned to proper account; and, if in the future the system of forts should be found provided with the most modern ordnance and held by a sufficient garrison, Erzerum may still earn the glory of owing her preservation to the sword rather than to the pen.
But not only is this fortress the key to Turkish Armenia; it also defends the most important of her trade routes. The principal avenue of the commerce between Europe and northern Persia passes through Erzerum. This traffic, which is conducted by means of numerous strings of camels, was originally founded by the Genoese. Its flourishing condition long after the disappearance of these great merchants is attested by the Jesuit missionaries in the latter half of the seventeenth century.[3] As early as the year 1690 we hear of a British commercial agent residing in the city.[4] In those days even a portion of the trade with India found its way through Erzerum. After the initiation of a service of steamers on the Black Sea in the year 1836, the land routes between the provincial capital and Constantinople or the Mediterranean ports gradually fell into disuse. On the other hand, the trade itself received a great impulse, and has continued to increase year by year to the present day. In place of the almost endless stages of land carriage through Asia Minor, European steamers discharge their goods at the port of Trebizond, whence they are conveyed on the backs of camels through Erzerum and along a series of plains to the Persian city of Tabriz. In the year 1842 it was ascertained that the number of packages disembarked at Trebizond in transit for Persia was about 32,000. In 1898 this trade had increased to over 5000 tons; and in a normal year the value of the imports into Persia is about £600,000. About two-thirds of this trade belongs to Great Britain. It is to be hoped that the trunk railway which already exists in Asia Minor will be extended to Erzerum, where it should be joined by a branch line from Rizeh or Trebizond. From Erzerum it could be continued without the intervention of any natural obstacle through Bayazid to Tabriz; and from Tabriz it would proceed through Teheran and Ispahan until it effected a junction with the Indian railways. The capital to construct this railway should be subscribed in Europe generally; and a certain percentage of interest should be guaranteed on the revenues of Turkish Armenia as a provincial unit, as well as on the revenues of Persia.
The population of Erzerum, especially the Armenian element, has undergone a remarkable oscillation during the nineteenth century. In 1827 it appears to have numbered as many as 130,000 souls.[5] Another but lower estimate gives a total at that period of 16,378 families, or from 80,000 to 100,000 souls. Of these 3950 families, or from 19,000 to 24,000 people, were Armenians of the national religion.[6] The Russian occupation of the city in 1829 was followed in 1830 by a general emigration of the Armenian inhabitants, who followed the Russian armies upon its evacuation. Those were the days when Russia was assisted to her conquests by Armenians and hailed by them as a deliverer. Numbers of their countrymen—it is said by Armenians not less than 40,000—had already emigrated into the Russian provinces from the frontier districts of Persia in the train of the Russian army when it retired from Tabriz at the peace of Turkomanchai (1828).[7] What with the exodus of Armenians both from the city and the plain—which before those times was probably inhabited by an Armenian majority—and the various calamities of a disastrous war, the population of Erzerum had declined to a total of not more than 15,000 souls in 1835.[8] Only 120 Armenian families are said to have remained behind.[9] At the time of my first visit the inhabitants numbered about 40,000, exclusive of a garrison of 5000 or 6000 men. The official figures assigned some 10,500 to the Armenians, 26,500 to the Mussulmans, 1400 to the Persians and strangers, and about 500 to the Greeks. Of the Armenians some 500 succumbed in the great massacre of 1898. It is evident, however, that the town has been returning to its former condition; and there can be no doubt that with the most moderate instalment of tolerable government the older figures would be soon surpassed. I was informed by the Persian Consul that some 30,000 to 40,000 head of camel were yearly counted as having passed through the city. The money spent by their owners for provisions and sundries in Erzerum amounts to about £T90,000 or, in sterling, £81,000 a year. Such is the value to the city of the Persian trade.
Fig. 164. Erzerum and its Plain from the South.