oman andRussian Empires. This resulted in the capture of Erzurum by Russian forces under the command ofGrand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai NikolaevichYudenich on February 16, 1916.
Erzurum was also a major deportation center during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. In the late April 1915, about 450 prominent Armenians of Erzerum city were imprisoned. Most of them were intellectuals,community leaders, journalists and merchants. In early May 1915 they were all executed. Prior to the war, the city had a vibrant Armenian community with numerous schools and served as the provincial residence of the Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church. By the time the Russians entered in 1916, barely a hundred Armenians were left alive, out of a prewar population of 20,000; it is estimated that approximately 90% of the Armenians of Erzurum province had perished. By 1919, according to the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, Erzurum was left completely devoid of its Armenian population. It is reported in Turkish sources that some Armenian troops serving in the Russian army carried out revenge killings in the area of Erzurum, after having witnessed the destruction that had been wrought against the Armenian population.
Erzurum reverted to Ottoman control after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. In 1919, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, one of the key founders of the modern Turkish Republic, resigned from the Ottoman Army in Erzurum and was declared an "Honorary Native" and freeman of the city, which issued him his first citizenship registration and certificate (NüfusCuzdanı) of the new Turkish Republic. The Erzurum Congress of 1919 was one of the starting points of the Turkish War of Independence
