Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus | ||||||||||||||||
Cenûb-i Garbî Kafkas Hükûmet-i Muvakkate-i Millîyesi Güneybatı Kafkas Geçici Milli Hükûmeti |
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Capital | Kars | |||||||||||||||
Languages | Ottoman Turkish | |||||||||||||||
Government | Republic | |||||||||||||||
President | Cihangiroğlu İbrahim Bey | |||||||||||||||
Historical era | World War I | |||||||||||||||
• | Partition | 1 December 1918 | ||||||||||||||
• | British occupation | 19 April 1919 | ||||||||||||||
Currency |
Kuruş Lira |
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The Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus,Provisional National Government of South West Caucasia (Modern Turkish: Güneybatı Kafkas Geçici Milli Hükûmeti; Ottoman Turkish: Cenub-ı Garbi Kafkas Hükûmet-i Muvakkate-i Milliyesi Azerbaijani: Cənub-Qərbi Qafqaz Cümhuriyyəti) or Kars Republic was a short-lived nominally-independent provisional government based in Kars, northeastern Turkey. Born in the wake of the Armistice of Mudros that ended World War I in the Middle East, it existed from December 1, 1918 until April 19, 1919, when it was abolished by British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe. Some historians consider it to have been a puppet state of the Ottoman Empire.
The government, headed by Fakhr al-Din Pirioghlu, considered its territory to be the predominantly Muslim-inhabited regions of Kars and Batum, parts of Yerevan province and the Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki districts of Tiflis province. In practical terms, however, the government was confined to Kars province and existed alongside the British governorship created during the Entente's intervention in Transcaucasia.