The areas of uprising were persuaded into insurrection by the sedition of Turkish and Azerbaijani agents who were trying to destabilise Armenia in order to form a pan-Turkic corridor between their nations.

[14] Following the withdrawal of the Ottoman army from the South Caucasus, local Muslims in the formerly occupied areas[a] were armed and assisted in establishing political states with the aim of resisting reincorporation into Armenia.

On 4 June 1918, in the aftermath of the October Revolution and the collapse of Russian authority in the South Caucasus, the newly independent First Republic of Armenia was forced to relinquish extensive territories to the Ottoman Empire through the Treaty of Batum.

The districts surrendered consisted of Kars and western parts of the Erivan Governorate including most of the counties (Russian: уезды, romanized: uezdy) of Surmalu and Nakhichevan (present-day Iğdır Province and Nakhchivan, respectively).

[19][20] Despite the apparent defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish agitators, invigorated by the British withdrawal from the South Caucasus, were reportedly encouraging sedition amongst Muslim villagers in Armenia—the subversive activities culminating in a series of anti-Armenian uprisings in the summer of 1919.

On 10 August 1919, General Drastamat Kanayan launched a counteroffensive which recaptured 5 rebelling villages and reached the heights of Boyuk Vedi, however, the town would not be retaken until the following year.

[26]Three days earlier, Takinski had apprised the Azerbaijani government of the unsuccessful Armenian counterattack at Boyuk Vedi which resulted in 200 casualties and led to the locals seizing "two artillery pieces and eight machine guns".

[31][32] Later in the year, Azerbaijani general Samed bey Mehmandarov complained to his government about the presence of Iranian agents trying to entice Muslim refugees in Sharur–Nakhichevan to seek refuge in Iran.

[33] On 18 June 1920, some months after the Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan in April, Armenia issued an ultimatum to the rebels of Zangibasar some 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) southwest of Yerevan to submit to Armenian rule.

In the fight for Zangibasar, Lieutenant Aram Kajaznuni, the son of the first prime minister of Armenia was killed,[34] however, the Armenians were victorious on 21 June and had secured the peripheries of Yerevan,[35][36][37][38] however, the locals (mainly Tatars, later known as Azerbaijanis) fled into the neighboring Surmalu uezd to Aralık to avoid retribution.

[39] The voices of the militaristic factions in the Armenian government were strengthened by the successes in Zangibasar and Olty,[40] therefore, the army prepared to retake the districts of Vedibasar and Sharur–Nakhichevan; the advance into the former began on 11 July and by the next day, Armenian forces had recaptured the district and Boyuk Vedi,[41] reaching the boundary of the Erivan and Sharur-Daralayaz uezds at the mountain pass known as the Volchi vorota (Волчьи ворота, 'Wolf gate')—this again caused the local Muslims to flee, now southward to Sharur.

[42] On 14 July, the Armenian advance continued through the Volchi vorota into the Sharur district, capturing it 2 days later whilst the locals fled across the Aras river into Iran.

The following year, whilst the uprisings in the Erivan uezd raged, partisans in Aralikh led by a Turkish officer from Erzurum attacked the Armenian army to relieve pressure on rebelling Boyuk Vedi.

The provocateurs on 12 January 1920 intended to train a local militia from the population of the villages to occupy the railway passing the Armenian-populated town of Kizil-Chakhchakh (present-day Akyaka).

The Armenian army led by Colonel Hovhannes Mazmanyan [ru] on 28 January unsuccessfully utilised the local "coldly neutral" Russian Molokans of Zarushad as representatives to demand that the rebelling Muslims submit to Armenia.

[50] Occurring simultaneously with the Armenian counteroffensive against the rebels of Zangibasar, an attempt was made to seize the coal reserves in Penek in the Kurdish-controlled Olti Okrug (present-day eastern Erzurum Province).

By 22 June, the Armenian army had converged on Penek and ousted its Turko-Kurdish defenders,[36] setting the new Armenian–Turkish frontier at the Oltu river[51] William N. Haskell, the Allied High Commissioner for Armenia, only a week after the subjugation of the Karabakh Council to Azerbaijan suggested the creation of a neutral zone in the south of Erivan Governorate including the rebelling districts of Sharur–Nakhichevan.

Armenian officials insisted on an American governorship to be created, limited in size to the areas under control of insurgents, however, this was rejected by the Azerbaijani government as it would not achieve its aim of severing Zangezur from Armenia.