After Russia's withdrawal from the war, the Armenians fell into a very difficult situation, all the Russian conquests returned back to the Turks, these are cities such as Erzurum, Erzincan, Muş, Bitlis, Trabzon and in May 1918 they captured Alexandroupol where 6,000 Armenians were immediately massacred and killed[3] but the Armenian troops took the tactic of "not a step back" and preferred to die than surrender the land.

Garegin Nzhdeh (with his troops) reached Karakilisa and managed to unite the population for the fight.

Although the Ottoman army managed to occupy Karakilisa and massacre all its population of 4,000 people, it had no more forces to intrude farther into Armenian territories.

[5][6] Despite the victory, the Turks experienced difficulties, their troops were drained of blood by the fierce resistance of the Armenians, as well as the scorched earth tactics in Georgia.

The three-day battle in Karakilise shows that as long as their existence is in danger they will prefer to die fighting.