Armistice of Mudros, October 1918 On October 31, 1918, the Ottoman Empire admitted defeat in World War I, and its troops retreated from Transcaucasia. British forces replaced them in December and took the area under their control. British mission The government of Azerbaijan tried to capture Nagorno-Karabakh with the help of the British. The new borders of Transcaucasia could not be defined without the agreement of Great Britain. Stating that the fate of the disputed territories must be solved at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the British command in reality did everything to incorporate Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan long before that. Establishing full control over the export of Baku oil, the British sought the secession of Transcaucasia from Russia; Azerbaijan, it was supposed, was to play a role of an advance post of the West in the South Caucasus and to create a barrier to the sovietization of the region. The policy of the Allied powers on Transcaucasia had a pro-Azerbaijani bent. The Karabakhian problem was dragged out, on the calculation that the military-political situation would become favourable to Azerbaijan, with a change in the ethnic structure of Nagorno-Karabakh. On January 15, 1919, the Azerbaijani government, with "the knowledge of the British command" appointed Khosrov bey Sultanov governor-general of Nagorno-Karabakh, simultaneously giving an ultimatum to the Karabakhian National Council to recognize the power of Azerbaijan. On February 19, 1919, the 4th Congress of the Armenian population of Karabakh convened in Shushi, and decisively rejected this ultimatum and protested the appointment of Sultanov as governor-general. The resolution adopted by the congress said: "Insisting on the principle of the self-determination of a people, the Armenian population of Karabakh respects the right of the neighbouring Turkish people to self-determination and, together with this, decisively protests against the attempts of the Azerbaijani government to eliminate this principle in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh, which never will concede to Azerbaijani power over it". In the connection with the appointment of Sultanov the British mission came out with an official notification, which stated, that "by the British command's consent Dr. Khosrov Bek Sultanov is appointed provisional governor of Zangezur, Shusha, Jivanshir and Jebrail useds [sic]. The British Mission finds it necessary to confirm that belonging of the mentioned districts to one or another unit must be solved at a Peace Conference". The National Council of Karabakh answered: However in spite of the Karabakhi protests the British continued to