e loss of the
Black Sea port of Rizeh. This event took place on March 8, 1916, and
the capture was accomplished by the fresh Russian troops that had been
landed a few days before at Atina, from which Rizeh is only twenty-two
miles distant. Along the Black Sea coast the Russians were now within
thirty-eight miles of Trebizond. On and on the Russians pressed, and
by March 17, 1916, their advance guard was reported within twenty
miles of Trebizond. However, by this time Turkish resistance along the
entire Armenian front stiffened perceptibly. This undoubtedly was due
to reenforcements which must have reached the Turkish line by that
time. For on March 30, 1916, the official Russian statement announced
that seventy officers and 400 men who had been captured along the
Caucasus littoral front belonged to a Turkish regiment which had
previously fought at Gallipoli. At the same time it was also announced
that fighting had occurred northwest of Mush. The Turkish forces
involved in this fighting must have been recent reenforcements,
because Mush is sixty-five miles northwest of Bitlis, the occupation
of which took place about four weeks previously, at which time the
region between Erzerum and Bitlis undoubtedly had been cleared of
Turkish soldiers. Their reappearance, now so close to the road between
Bitlis and Erzerum, presented a serious menace both to the center and
to the left wing of Grand Duke Nicholas's forces, for if the Turkish
troops were in large enough force, the Russians were in danger of
having their center and left wing separated. This condition, of
course, meant that until this danger was removed, the closest
cooperation between the various parts of the Russian army became
essential, and therefore resulted in a general slowing down of the
Russian advance for the time being.

In the meantime the Russian center continued its advance against
Erzingan. This is an Armenian town of considerable military
importance, being the headquarters of the Fourth Turkish Army Corps.
On March 16, 1916, an engagement took place about sixty miles west of
Erzerum, resulting in the occupation by the Russians of the town of
Mama Khatun, located on the western Euphrates and on the
Erzerum-Erzingan-Sivas road. According to the official Russian
statement the Turks lost five cannon, some machine guns and supplies
and forty-four officers and 770 men by capture. Here, too, however,
the Turks began to offer a more determined resistance, and al