On January 11, 1918, the special decree On Armenia was signed by Lenin and Stalin which armed and repatriated over 100,000 Armenians from the former Tsar's Army to be sent to the Caucasus for operations against Ottoman interests.

[2] On January 20, 1918, Talaat Pasha entered an official protest against the Bolsheviks arming Armenian army legions and replied, "the Russian leopard had not changed its spots.

Enver Pasha offered to surrender all Turkish ambitions in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the Ottoman reacquisition of the east Anatolian provinces at Brest-Litovsk at the end of the negotiations.

[4] At this conference the Ottomans extended their demands to include Tiflis as well as Alexandropol and Echmiadzin; they also wanted a railroad to be built to connect Kars and Julfa with Baku.

General Erich Ludendorff was also involved in supervision and organizing the expedition; he met Georgian representatives in Berlin, accompanying them to see Kaiser Wilhelm II.

On June 10, the German force arrived at Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, and held a joint German-Georgian military parade in the city's main thoroughfare.

[10] Early in June 1918, the Ottoman 3rd Army under Vehip Pasha renewed its offensive on the main road to Tiflis, and confronted a joint German-Georgian force.

[2] The Ottoman government had to concede to German pressure by sacking Vehip Pasha and halting its drive, for the moment, and further advance into Georgia for the Batumi-Tiflis-Baku railway and associated pipeline.

At the same time, Germany provided financial assistance to the Bolshevik government in Moscow and offered to stop the Ottoman Army of Islam in return for guaranteed access to Baku's oil.

According to the August 27 agreement between the Bolshevik government in Moscow and Germany, the latter was to receive a quarter of Baku's oil production which was sent through the Caspian Sea and up the lower Volga to German supported forces in Ukraine.

The Soviet Bicherakhov detachment and the German Caucasus Expedition led by Colonel Friedrich von der Holtz met on 17 September, along with the forces of the Baku Commune who were leaving the city.