The Special Transcaucasian Committee ( Russian: Особый Закавказский Комитет ''Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet'' (OZaKom, Ozakom or OZAKOM)) was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A. Kharlamov as Chairman, to replace the Imperial Viceroy Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and with special instruction to establish civil administrations in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

in the

Transcaucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arm ...

as the highest organ of the civil administrative body. Commissars were appointed for the

Terek Oblast The Terek Oblast was a province ('' oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, roughly corresponding to the central part of Russia's North Caucasian Federal District. Тhe ''оblast'' was created out of the former territories of ...

and the

Kuban Oblast The Kuban Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of the Kuban and Circassia regions. It was created in 1860 out of Kuban Cossack territories that had once been part o ...

, and these as well as the Committee were to carry on relations with central government institutions through a Commissar for Caucasian Affairs in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

attached to the Provisional Government. Soviets also sprang up throughout the area and, in time, organized an influential Regional Center at

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, using the loyalty of the Russian Armenians.

Hakob Zavriev Hakob Zavriev ( hy, Հակոբ Զավրիև), also known as Yakov Zavriev, was an Armenian politician. Zavriev was a graduate of the St. Petersburg Army Medical Academy. He later joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The viceroy of the ...

was instrumental in having Ozakom issue a decree about the administration of the occupied territories. This region was officially identified as ''"the land of

Turkish Armenia Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, ''Arevmdian Hayasdan'') is a term to refer to the eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that are part of the historical homeland of the Armenians. West ...

"'' and transferred to a civilian rule under Zavriev, who oversaw districts Trebizon, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van. Each of the districts under

Administration for Western Armenia The occupation of Western Armenia by the Russian Empire during World War I began in 1915 and was formally ended by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was sometimes referred to as the Republic of Van by Armenians. Aram Manukian of Armenian Revolut ...

had their own Armenian governor, with Armenian civil officials. In November 1917, the first government of the independent Transcaucasia was created in Tbilisi as the " Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm)" replaced "Transcaucasian Committee" following the Bolshevik seizure of power in Saint Petersburg. It was headed by a Georgian

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions em ...

Nikolay Chkheidze Nikoloz Chkheidze ( ka, ნიკოლოზ (კარლო) ჩხეიძე; russian: Никола́й (Карло) Семёнович Чхеи́дзе, translit=Nikolay (Karlo) Semyonovich Chkheidze) commonly known as Karlo Chkheidze ( � ...

. On December 5, 1917, this new "Transcaucasian Committee" given the endorsement to

Armistice of Erzincan The Armistice of Erzincan (also spelled Erzindzhan or Erzinjan) was an agreement to suspend hostilities during World War I signed by the Ottoman Empire and Transcaucasian Commissariat in Erzincan on 18 December 1917 (5 December O.S.).Tadeusz Swiet ...

that was signed with the Ottoman command of the Third Army. This was followed with what is known as Trabzon peace negotiations. On February 10, 1918, the Sejm gathered and made the decision to establish independence. On February 24, 1918, Sejm proclaimed Transcaucasia independent under

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; (), (). 22 April – 28 May 1918) was a short-lived state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as ...

. Headed by the Georgian Social Democrat Evgeni Gegechkori, Transcaucasian Commissariat was anti-Bolshevik in its political goals and sought the separation of Transcaucasia from

Bolshevik Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

. The committee ignored the Social Democratic hegemony in the region and provoked the Soviets to demand its abolition.

Members

The Ozakom was composed of five members: *

Vasily Kharlamov Vasily Akimovich Kharlamov (russian: Васи́лий Аки́мович Харла́мов) (1 January 1875 – 13 March 1957) was a Russian politician involved in the revolution and civil war. Kharlamov, of the Don Cossacks, was a member of th ...

, Chairman, Russian; *

Kita Abashidze Prince Kita (Ivane) Abashidze ( ka, კიტა აბაშიძე) (16 January 1870 – 17 December 1917) was a Georgian literary critic, journalist, and politician. Abashidze was born into a noble family in the province of Guria. Having g ...

, Social-Federalist, Georgian, subsequently replaced by

Akaki Chkhenkeli Akaki Chkhenkeli ( ka, აკაკი ჩხენკელი) (1874 – 5 January 1959) was a Georgian Social Democratic politician and publicist who acted as one of the leaders of the Menshevik movement in Russia and Georgia. In 1918 he serve ...

(also Georgian); *

Mammad Yusif Jafarov Mammad Yusif Jafarov Hajibaba oghlu ( az, Məmməd Yusif Cəfərov Hacıbaba oğlu ; March 14, 1885 - May 15, 1938) was an Azerbaijani statesman. Early life Jafarov was born on March 14, in Baku, in the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire (p ...

, Azerbaijani. *

Michael Papadjanian Michael Papadjanian, or Mikayel (1868 in Yerevan, Armenia – 1929 in Tiflis, Soviet Union) was a member of the Armenian national liberation movement who studied law at Rostov, Odessa and St Petersburg, and had a practice as a barrister at Baku. ...

, Armenian.

Members

References

See also