To this protest the Bolshevist Government of Russia added the following:
The offensive of the Turkish troops and detachments on the
Caucasian front has been followed by the murder of the whole
Armenian population. The peaceful population of women and children
have been killed without mercy and their property has been
plundered and burned.
The peace treaty, which we were forced to sign at Brest-Litovsk,
left the determination of the future destiny of the people of the
provinces of Ardahan, Kars, and Batum to themselves. The events
which have taken place in these provinces testify that the old
policy of the annihilation of the Armenian people is still to be
applied.
On the Turkish front the advantage of the war was on the side of
Russia, and Russia was forced to give up Ardahan, Kars, and Batum
only because Germany was the ally of Turkey. The responsibility
for all the horrors which the Armenian population is now suffering
in those regions already occupied by the Turkish troops lies,
therefore, with the German Government, which directly helped
Turkey to secure these regions.
The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs protests against
such abuse of the right of self-determination of the population
of these provinces, and expresses the hope and insists on the
necessity of immediate and energetic intervention on the part of
Germany in the Caucasus, with a view to stopping further murders
and the annihilation of the peaceful population, such as has taken
place in Ardahan.
The Armenians and Georgians fought the advancing Turks, but their
efforts were in vain; on April 17 Batum fell to the Turks, and the
Ottoman troops were said to have a firm grip on these and other
portions of the Caucasus.