 As of early 1918 only few thousand Armenian volunteers under the command of two hundred officers opposed the Turkish offenses.In the spring of 1917, Karekin Pastermadjian and Dr. Hakob Zavriev, was sent from the Caucasus to Petrograd to negotiate with the temporary Russian government concerning Caucasian affairs.Karekin Pastermadjian left for America in June 1917 as the representative of the Armenian National Council of Tiflis and as the special envoy of the Catholicos of all the Armenians,

On December 5, 1917, the armistice of Erzincan was signed between the Russians and Ottomans, ending armed conflicts between the two states.