405 
THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURNEY. 
the night, and by daybreak the right wing had also left its position and 
covered the retreat, which was unmolested. The loss of the day, which 
fell almost entirely on the Grenadier Division, was 850 men, or from 
9 to 10 per cent, of the effective. 
The loss of the battle of Zewin, and the threatening of the retreat of 
the Erivan Column by the appearance of the Turks before Bayazid, 
mark the turning point of the operations of the first period. The 
junction of the Alexandropol and Erivan Columns, which would have 
been done in three days' march, could not now take place; the latter 
had to begin its retreat, and the former was compelled to do the same, 
by the advance of Mukhtar Pasha with a strongly reinforced army. 
On the 29th June Loris-Melikoff began his retreat on Kars from the 
Camp of Mellidooz, and on the 9th July had to raise the siege of the 
former place before the advancing Turks. The siege artillery was 
mostly sent back to Alexandropol, but a part of it was used to arm the 
works at Kurukdara. The infantry withdrew first to Zaim, the cavalry 
to Hadji Yali. When Mukhtar advanced, the army had first to retire 
to the line Khalif Oghlu-Bulanach-Aladja, and finally to Ketschis- 
Kurukdara-Kadiklar-Yilanli. On the 20th July these positions were 
taken up, and for some time the armies remained quiet, observing one 
another. 
( d) Erivan Column. 
The Turkish frontier town Bayazid, to which an old but strong 
citadel gives a certain worth as a fortress, lies in the centre of a semi¬ 
circle extending to the east, whose northern part is formed by the 
Russian, its southern and eastern by the Persian frontier. The Russian 
frontier runs off: at a tangent from the northern part of this semicircle, 
and runs 55 kils. to the west before it turns up towards Alexandropol. 
Parallel to the former section of the frontier line runs the road from 
Bayazid by Karakilissa to Erzeroum, 22 kils. south of the line. 
The Ararat Mountains, upon which, north-east of Bayazid, the point 
of junction of the three frontiers lies, prevent, by their want of roads, 
the advance of Russian troops from this side, so that an advance on 
Bayazid can only be made from the north, and if this be combined with 
an invasion further west, to cut off the retreat of the garrison to 
Erzeroum, there is nothing left for it but to retire into the territory of 
the Kurds on the Lake of Man. 
General Tergukasoff, who had concentrated his corps at Igdir, 45 kils. 
north of Bayazid and 23 from the frontier, sent an advanced guard 
forward in two columns towards the border on the 27th April, to make 
the road fit for troops. On the 28th he followed with the left column 
of the main body, marching by Orgoff direct on Bayazid, while the 
right column, under Lieut.-Col. Schimscheff, moved in a south¬ 
westerly direction by Kudjach, to strike the caravan route. A deputa¬ 
tion of the inhabitants of Bayazid was sent to the left column to state 
that they wished to submit to the Russians, but were hindered from so 
doing by Ali Kiamali Pasha, the Governor of the district, who held the 
town with 2 battalions, 5 squadrons, and 2 mountain guns. On the 
