Battle of Krtsanisi
The
Battle of Krtsanisi was fought between Persian and Georgian troops at the place of
Krtsanisi near
Tbilisi on
September 8-
September 11,
1795.
The
Persian castrate ruler
Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar demanded from
Erekle II, king of
Kartl-Kakheti (eastern Georgia) to denounce the
Treaty of Georgievsk with
Russia and recognize the suzerainty of the Persian
Shah. King
Erekle II refused a Persian ultimatum, remaining faithful to the alliance with
Russia. Nevertheless, the latter did not send a single soldier to support her ally and left a tiny Georgian kingdom alone in the face of Persian aggression.
Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar invaded
Kartl-Kakheti with 35,000 troops in September
1795. King Erekle managed to organize only a defense militia of 5,000 due to the lack of regular forces and betrayal of certain nobles. Persians broke desperate resistance of a tiny Georgian force in the three-day bloody battle near
Tbilisi, took the city and burned it to the ground. King
Erekle II, 75, made a sortie with a few bodyguards and left the burning capital for the mountains to organize
guerrilla warfare against the invaders.The battle resulted in a complete destruction of the city of
Tbilisi. Many of its inhabitants died in the street fights. Thousands of refugees fled to other regions of the country. Persian army also suffered huge losses and had soon to leave Georgia taking some 2,000-3,000 captives. The Kingdom of
Kartl-Kakheti never recovered from this invasion and was annexed by the
Russian Empire a few years later.
*
List of Georgian battles*
Persian Expedition of 1796
