RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3919, 30 May 1877, Page 2

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Diarbekir [Diyadin].— The cable telegram of May 27 gives some particulars of the movements of the Russian troops in Armenia, They are advancing on Erzrum, so as, no doubt, to cut off Kars from its '< base of supplies, and to occupy the heights that command the fortress from the west. Their vanguard is said to be at Olti, a V name familiar to those conversant with W~ the events in Asia of 1855, and their left wing to be advancing on what is called Diarbekir. Diarbekir, however, is situated on the Tigris, in an entirely different part of Asia Minor. It lies about 200 miles to the south-west of Kars, and between the two are ranges of impassable mountains. Dij-adin, or Digur, possibly are meant. It is becoming daily more and more clear that Russia will gain, whatever advantage she is to gain from the war, in Asia Minor. Her promises not to annex territory, we shall probably find will apply only to territory on the Danube, and she will forge onwards towards Constantinople, along the southern shore of -V. the Euxine. She has already occupied Bayazid, said by General Macantosh^an eminent authority, to bea position "than which there is none of greater importance in a military point of view in Western Asia," as it opens the road at once to the Persian Gulf and to Syria ; and we may be sure that she will not readily relax her grasp on it. Russia's object for many years past has been to get the control of the great road from the Black Sea ports to Ispahan, and with it the control of the large commerce passing thereby. She made a great step towards the achievement of this object in 1829. "The cession of the Asiatic fortresses, with their neighboring districts," wrote Lord Aberdeen in that year, in commenting on the Treaty of Adrianople, "not only secures to Russia the uninterrupted occupation of the eastern coast of the Black Sea, but places her in a situation so commanding as to control at pleasure the destiny of Asia Minor. Prominently advanced into the centre of -Armenia, in the midst of a Christian population, Russia holds the keys both of the Persian and the Turkish provinces ; and whether she may be disposed to extend her conquests to the East or to. the West, to Teheran or to Constantinople, no serious obstacle can arrest her progress." She made another important advance in 1855, but had to restore her Asian conquests in order to regain possession of her lost Crimean fortresses. It is not improbable that the close of the campaign of this year may see her flag flying at Trebizond. This advance of the Russian power in Asia is perhaps more calculated to make English statesmen uneasy than any similar advance in Europe. Persia, there is some reason to fear, will be reduced almost to the position of a Russian de-' pendency, and thus one great bulwark of our Indian Empire will be broken down. If, moreover, a Euphrates Valley railway is ever constructed, our communications with India by means of it are likely to be at the mercy of the Northern power. .. . Erzrum, the capital of the eyaletof that '^~ name, ancl the principal city of Armenia, is stated by the Illustrated Universal Gazetteer to be situated on the Kara su, or west branch of the Euphrates, in a beautiful plain about 0000 feet above the level of the sea, 30 miles long and 20 miles broad. The distance of Erzrum from its nearest seaport, Kebizond, is 120 miles. Its streets are narrow and filthy ; the houses are mostly of wood, mud, or bricks dried in the sun, -and the whole city is infested with savage-looking dogs. The principal buildings are the Greek and Armenian churches, and the custom-house • besides which there are about 40 mosques ancl numereus caravanserais. Outside of the city are four suburbs. The caravans travelling from Keheran to Mecca usually halt here, and an active trade is carried on with all the adjacent countries. Shawls, silks, cotton, rice, indigo, tobacco, ancl madder, are imported from the East, and broadcloth, chintz, cutlery, &c, from the West, by the Black Sea. The exports are furs, galls, and live-stock. The position of Erzrum, which commands the road from Persia to Constantinople, renders it still an important military post, as it was in the time of its Byzantine masters, and also a point of great commercial interest. It is the seat of the Turkish GovernorGeneral, of the English and other foreign consuls, and the focus of the transit trade v r between Europe and Kebizond on' the one — — hand, and Central Ashy -and Persia on the other. Its population*!- 40,000.