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THE ELUSIVE ENVER.
A CAUCASIAN
INCIDENT.
; A correspondent furnishes the London
".Uoinmg Post" with this interesting
slory :• -
The unconfirmed report that Enver;
I'astia had been assassinated recalls a
dr ainatic. incident in which the notori-'
<>«* Tuiksh Leader and a friend of
mine were tne central figures. After!
the armistice, British troops occupied
various strategic points in Georgia,;
Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and as tnat;
timc 1 was in command of the troops j
at Fvakli- a small but important
phice, which has aoout midway be-1
twee a Tflis and Baku, on the. Trans-]
Caucasian railway. lOvlakh was the I
J aiJhead for Agdam and Shusha--two |
towns in which were stationed very!
sail British garrisons, and situated I
respectively 20 and o(i miles inland.!
Now Shusiia, with its 00,000 inhabitants,
consisting of half Turks and half
Armenians, was the. scene of many
bloody .-onilieis between the two opposing
factions of the population.
Massaciess ()f Armenians were
events of almost daily occurrence, and
weie Known to be the work of former
prominent leaders uf the Young Turk
Movement, many of whom were wanted
by the Allies for their atrocities
during the Great War. As Shusha is
situated on the Azerbaijan-Armenian
frontier, and is only approached by a
narrow, steep mountain road, it was
not sui prising* that many of these
criminals took refuge within its walls,
and were harbored by fellow-countrymen,
whose hatred of the Allies exceeded
everything and anything else
in life. Frequently the activities of the
British Secret Service would result in,
the arrest of some of these malefactors.
One day in May, 1019—the day
round which this story is woven—mv
friend, a brother officer, was left in
temporary command of the small garrison
at Agdam. Resting there, under
his protection, was a certain Persian,
a Secret Agent in British employ, who
was to proceed within a few days to
Shusha on an important mision. It
v.-as early afternoon, and the whole
countryside seemed to respond to the
peaceful influence of the brilliant sun,.
when my friend was startled from his
i everie by the excited shouting of
the Agent. Although speaking very
little English, he succeeded in explaini»g'
that he nad just observed four
op e . n carriages driving towards Shusha
ancl onc ut the
occupants was a Turk
who was wanted by bv the Allies on
grave charges in connection with the
Armenian massacres.
In less time than it takes to relate,
my friend, accompanied by the
Agent and sixteen Indian soldiers in
three Ford cars, started in pursuit
of the carriages, and eventually overtook
them at a point about two miles
beyjnd Agdam. Ordering his men
to surround the party, my friend and
the Secret Agent were examining the
occupants of each carriage when suddenly
the Agent called my friend
aside, and, in a voice which quivered
with suppressed excitement, whispered
the words, "Enver Pasha!" Hastening
to the front carriage my friend
immediately realised that he was
right, for there, reclining against a
cushion and wearing the uniform of
an officer in the Azerbaijan army, was
nolle other than the notorious En vet-
Pasha. The trappers trapped. The
thoughts that must have flashed
through the mind of my friend are
best left, to the imagination of the
reader. Visions of fame, promotion, j
and, perhaps, the thanks of the Army;
Council may have loomed before him.!
I only kn ivy that for him the iden'titi-!
cation of Enver Pasha was but the I
beginning of a chapter of startling;
incidents that seldom fall to the lot ,
of any man with the same dramatic!
swiftness as they occurred to my
friend on that torrid day. The triumph
of my friend was short-lived.:
for, from his Indian soldiers came,
cries of, "Sahib, look!" The sight;
which met his eyes left him dumbfounded,
for some hundreds or more ;
bayonets gleamed in the sunshine and;
he realised he was surrounded by Turkish
irregulars, the formidable bodyguard
of Enver Pasha. They seemed
to have sprung form nowhere as by
the impulse of a magic summons.
There seemed to be no way out
from the trap into which he had fallen,
and away on the right he saw men
carrying supplies of ammunition to a
machine gun! Hut the resource and
initiative which had carried him safely
through many a hard-fought
"scrap" did not fail him at that criti-.
cal moment, and so with courteous
apoligies for the "mistake," which
Ever Pasha acknowledged with a cynical
grin, he hastily made his way back'
to Agdam, a wiser but sadder mail!
That night my friend received a iiie.-.-
-•age, purport ng to have come from the
Azerbaijan G >vernor-Genera! at
Shusha stating that this particular :
Agent was urgently requested to speak
to b.m on the telephone. Unsuspectng,
U:
A gel
y the Secret Agent was about to
l out to the village to answer
•ajpposed telephone call, when an
rprcter, who had overheurt! the
ersation, informed my friend that
village possessed no telephone,
reminder was obvious. Had the
:.t left, the barracks rhut. night
i i Pasha's irregulars would have
<; < no nior.: victim to t.h;.v li.-t.
e..ys lave; 1 my friend an 1 I live
re sent to Evlakh en routfor
their own safety.
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