Battle of Erzincan

Battle of Erzincan; Эрзинджанское сражение; Երզնկայի ճակատամարտ; Erzincan Savaşı
	Part of World War I
	; Surrender of Turkish soldiers
Date	2–25 July 1916
Location	Erzincan, Erzurum Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Result	Russian victory;
Territorial; changes	Russians successfully capture Erzincan from the Ottomans
Belligerents
Russian Empire	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Nikolai Yudenich	Wehib Pasha; Topal Osman
Strength
Russian Caucasus Army Greek Caucasus Division	Third Army
Casualties and losses
12,000	34,000, of them 17,000 captured

The Battle of Erzincan (Russian: Эрзинджанское сражение, Turkish: Erzincan Muharebesi) was a Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

In February 1916, Nikolai Yudenich had taken the cities of Erzurum and Trabzon. Trabzon had provided the Russians with a port to receive reinforcements in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha ordered the Third Army, now under Vehip Pasha, to retake Trabzon.^[3] Vehip's attack failed and General Yudenich counterattacked on July 2.^[3] The Russian attack hit the Turkish communications center of Erzincan forcing Vehip's troops to retreat as well as losing 34,000 men, half taken as POWs.^[3] As a result, the Third Army was rendered ineffective for the rest of the year and Erzincan was captured by the Russians.^[4]

Notes

^ Allen W. E. D., Muratoff Paul. Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border 1828–1921. Cambridge University Press. 2011. p. 411.
^ Boyd, Douglas (September 2014). Other First World War: The Blood-Soaked Eastern Front. ISBN 978-0750957861.
^ ^a ^b ^c A Global Chronology of Conflict, Volume Four, ed. Spencer C. Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 1625.
^ David Eggenberger, An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 b.c. to the Present, (Courier Dover Publications, 1985), 137.