30 due to bad weather conditions. Karabekir oversaw the entire operation from the nearby heights of Berna. Before the battle Karabekir attempted to set the Armenians on the wrong track by dispatching false messages about troop movements. In the days leading up to the assault Turkish troops captured several strategic heights around Kars and placed the city at risk of encirclement. On October 28, 2,000 Turkish troops took their positions at the Vezinköy-Yahni heights, while Armenian forces withdrew from fortified positions and heights on three sides of Kars to positions closer to the city. An attack by Turkish cavalry on Mezraa train station was beaten back, but raised serious concerns that the Armenians' escape route could be cut off. Although by October 29 the fortress was surrounded on three sides, the General Pirumian assured the Armenian ministry of military affairs that the fortress could withstand the enemy. On the evening of October 29, Colonel Mazmanian tried to retake the heights of Vezinköy with his 1st Regiment, but his men refused to follow him, after which Mazmanian committed suicide. The Armenians had abandoned many of their key positions without a serious fight and fled to the main fortress of Kars. Reinforcements were sent from the east to secure the connection between Kars and Alexandropol, and General Hovsepian was replaced by General Hovhannes Ghazarian at the last minute. Fall of Kars On the morning of October 30, the Turkish troops began their operation to surround and capture the fortress. After successfully capturing the important height of Fort Lazarev, Turkish troops entered the city almost unopposed from the plain, causing panic among the city's civilians and the defending soldiers. Chaos ensued as civilians and soldiers tried to flee the city, hardly putting up any resistance to the Turks. 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. By the mid-afternoon of October 30, the last pockets of Armenian resistance had been defeated. Aftermath The city's civilian population had been forbidden to leave prior to the battle, so most of Kars's 40,000 inhabitants were there on the day of its capture. Many that did not manage to escape were massacred (6,000 according to Simon Vratsian) or taken hostage