Battle of Mokvi monastery

Battle of Mokvi
Part of Sochi conflict
Date August 16, 1918 Location Mokvi, Democratic Republic of Georgia Result Georgian victory
Belligerents
Democratic Republic of Georgia	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Valiko Jugheli Giorgi Tukhareli Lev Turkmani	Yusuf Izzet Pasha
Strength
60	1000
Casualties and losses
9 killed	55 killed

The Battle of Mokvi was fought between troops of the Ottoman Empire and the Democratic Republic of Georgia on August 16, 1918, near Mokvi Cathedral.

Background

The introduction of Georgian troops into Abkhazia was viewed ambiguously by the Abkhaz themselves. Therefore, when in the late summer of 1918 Germany began to curtail military operations in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus was under attack of the North Caucasus Corps of the Turkish army under the command of General Yusuf Izzet Pasha, an Adyghe by nationality, representatives of the Abkhazian aristocracy in the ANS turned to Turkish Abkhazians for help.

Their plans envisaged inclusion of Abkhazia in the Mountain Republic under Turkish auspices, but since Turkey could not openly oppose its ally Germany in this matter, it was planned to support Abkhazians by sending volunteers.

History

At the beginning of August 1918, the situation in Abkhazia worsened. This was caused by the so-called transfer of a new squad of "Muhajirs", who headed towards the direction of Jgerdi, they went Tatash Marshania, one of the leaders of the pro-Turkish orientation. It became more and more clear that the pro-Ottoman part of the deputies of the "People's Council of Abkhazia" clearly committed treason and supported an armed putsch. In such a situation, the democratic wing of the Council led by Varlam Sharvashidze and Vladimir Emukhvari came up with the initiative of reorganizing the "People's Council of Abkhazia". Those individuals who facilitated the occupation of Abkhazia by the Turks were accused of treason and had to be deported from Abkhazia. The number of Turks reached a thousand. During the entire expedition, the units of the regular army under the command of Colonel Tukhareli did not manage to come into contact with the enemy, only a small detachment of the People's Guard, totaling 60 men, under the command of Lev Turkmani, fought a battle against the numerically superior enemy and repelled it. The newspaper "Time" wrote about this battle as such:

On August 16, our detachment, which was encamped in the Mokvi monastery, was attacked by an Ottoman-Abkhaz detachment numbering up to a thousand men. We repelled their first attack. They repeated the attack on the same night and intended to take the main doors of the monastery. Did our guards notice the approach of the Askers, they started shooting, slowly retreated and joined the main forces. Askers broke into the courtyard of the monastery and a hand-to-hand battle took place here. The enemy mainly fired hand grenades at us. The latter responded with machine guns. When the Guardsmen ran out of ammunition, they launched an attack, which was repulsed by the enemy mayor. The soldiers could not withstand the second attack and retreated. Ours chased them and completely scattered them. Several people were killed from our side: Poruchik Arpon Shervashidze, Ensign Al. Berulava, guardsmen: Chocheli, Beridze, Maskhulia, Kechedzhi, Alibegashvili, Glonti, Gognadze. Staff-Captain Il. Jugel, Lev Tumarkin and others. We inflicted great damage on the enemy, and we killed 55 people from their side alone. In the words of the squad leader, we showed great heroism. Captain Il. Jugel, who did not leave the field of battle even after being wounded and encouraged the soldiers with his heroism, and the others were not ashamed, fought with self-sacrifice, and this was the reason that the enemy turned back so soon.

References

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