The Turkish invasion of Armenia, also known as the Turkish–Armenian War and known in Turkey as the Eastern Front (Turkish: Doğu cephesi) of the Turkish War of Independence, was a conflict fought between the recently established First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement, following the signing of the Treaty of Sevres in 1920. The treaty transferred vast portions of eastern Anatolia from the Ottoman Empire to Armenia, including the towns of Trabzon, Erzurum and Van. While delegates of the Ottoman government reluctantly signed the treaty following their defeat in World War I, members of the Ottoman parliament refused to ratify it. The treaty greatly angered the Turkish Nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, and refused to recognize it. In September 1920, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir, who had recently mutinied against the Ottoman government and joined the nationalists, attacked Armenian forces stationed in the area. Karabekir had orders from the Ankara Government to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically".
One estimate places the number of Armenians massacred by the Turkish army during the invasion at 100,000—this is evident in the marked decline (−25.1%) of the population of modern-day Armenia from 961,677 in 1919 to 720,000 in 1920. The Turkish military victory was followed by the Red Army invasion of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Turkish invasion and occupation had drastic humanitarian impacts to Armenia's population, triggering condemnation from German and USA officials. According to several historians, only Soviet intervention prevented the completion of the Armenian genocide.
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