The swift capture of Kars opened the path for Turkish forces to advance towards Armenia's largest city at the time, Alexandropol, and effectively decided the outcome of the Turkish–Armenian War in the Kemalists' favor.

[4] Karabekir's army then moved towards Kars, but this assault was delayed by Armenian resistance, as well as Turkish concerns about a potential British or Russian intervention in response to the offensive.

[7] On October 7, Mustafa Kemal emphasized the importance of taking Kars in order to impose Turkey's demands on Armenia and gave Karabekir "freedom of action to make use of all favorable opportunities" to capture the city.

[13] The morale and organization of the Armenian defenders on the Kars front were harmed by a number of factors, such as the long-standing rivalry between the civilian and military administrations, represented by Governor-General Stepan Korganian on one side and generals Pirumian and Hovsepian on the other.

[16] Ministers Vratsian and Babalian criticized generals Pirumian and Hovsepian in their report to Yerevan, claiming that Kars's Armenian population did not trust them and blaming them for the earlier losses in September.

[18] Most of Halit Bey's 9th Caucasus Division, supported by cavalry, tribal and artillery regiments, was to bypass the left wing of the Armenian defenses and reach the heights of Mağaracık, Vezinköy,[b] and Yahni to the east of the fortress.

[citation needed] In the days leading up to the assault Turkish troops captured several strategic heights around Kars and placed the city at risk of encirclement.

[25] At noon, seeing that the situation was hopeless, Colonel Vahan Ter-Arakelian, General Pirumian's chief of staff, came out of the citadel with a white flag to offer their surrender in exchange for the sparing of the civilian population and proper treatment of prisoners of war.

[14] Generals Pirumian, Araratov, and Ghazarian, Colonels Shaghubadian, Vekilian, Babajanov, and Ter-Arakelian, thirty-odd officers and about 3,000 soldiers, as well as Acting Minister of Welfare Artashes Babalian, Archbishop Garegin Hovsepiants, Vice-Governor Ruben Chalkhushian, and Mayor Hamzasp Norhatian were taken prisoner.

On November 12, the Turks also captured the strategic village of Aghin, northeast of the ruins of the former Armenian capital of Ani and then planned to move towards Yerevan.