ERZERUM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1513, 22 February 1916, Page 4

ERZERUM.

Mr Ashmead Bartlett, speaking at Sydney last week, said he considers the importance of the capture of Erzerum cannot be over-estimated. It formed the vital turning point of the Russian advance. There was every pro bability now—though a year later than was hoped—that they would find the Allied armies en route to Constantinople.

AN HISTORIC CITY,

The capital of a province of the Moslem Empire, Erzerum derives its importance from the fact that it is still a centre of caravan routes, as it has been from the beginning of history, and the junction of a main road, either of commerce or invasion, running east and west. It stands at one end of a cultivated plain, thirty miles long by ten miles wide, and over 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. Like most Turkish cities. Erzerum combines modern squalor with the architectural remains of a brilliant past. The streets are narrow and dirty, and the flatlopped houses, built mostly of volcanic stone, held together by mud, of no pretensions. In the neighbourhood of the fortress are some finer buildings, including the residence of the chief magistrate and the richer merchants, but, in the absence of trees and gardens, the town presents a generally grey and uninteresting aspect. The population, scattered through four irregular suburbs centring round the stronghold, has been calculated to amount to about 40,000, of which 30,000 are Turks, 8,000 Armenians, and 2,000 Persians, the majority being engaged in commercial enterprises of one kind or another. There are English, Russian, French and German consular agencies, with a few private residents of these nations, and an American Mission and schools. Situated as the town is on the main road leading from Trebizond on the coast into Northwest Persia, and in the neighbourhood of other caravan routes to Kars and elsewhere, the place has always enjoyed a large trade. IN PEACE AND WAR. Amongst crafts for which it is especially reputed are those of the blacksmith and coppersmith. Erzerum shoes the horses of all the surrounding districts, and its brassware is known from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf. It also possesses many tanneries, employed in turning out the material for Turkish boots and slippers and Arab horse saddlery. The local Morocco leather is even better than that of the country giving the article its name. Besides these manufactures, the city exports corn, sheep, cattle and horses from the surrounding plains, and imports large quantities of silk or other Persian goods, Manchester cotton, tobacco, rice and indigo for its dye works.

The bazaars and caravanserais, where the merchants meet at stated times for the sale of these things, present a curious blending of East and West, and on such occasions animated scenes are witnessed. But since Russian Transcaucasia has provided a safe trade route to Northern Persia the prosperity of the town has considerably sutfered. Owing to its elevation above the sea, the city is hot and dry in summer and extremely cold in winter. The scenery in the neighbourhood is picturesque, the level monotony of the plain being broken by surrounding ranges of hills, some of them rising to an elevation of 10,000 ft., while in Dumlu Dagb, a few miles to the northward, is the source of the Euphrates. The chief city of Turkish Armenia, Erzerum, is of great antiquity, and first rose into prominence under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, its modern name being derived from Erzeu erRum, the City of the Romans. It was conquered by an Arab host in 700, but retaken by the Byzm-

tines halt a century later. Its next masters were the Seljuks, who stormed it in 120-1, they in turn being expelled by a Mongol army in 1241. In 1517 it tell into the hands of the Turks.

In the war of 1829, waged between the Turks and Russians, the taking of Erzerum by General Paskievich decided the campaign.

Although of much strategical value, the town itself was not strongly fortified. The chief resistance an advancing enemy would be likely to encounter would come from the forts on the Deveboyun ridge, and others on neighbouring hills.