The Armeno-Georgian War was a short border dispute that was fought in December 1918 between the newly-independent Democratic Republic of Georgia and the First Republic of Armenia, largely over the control of former districts of Tiflis Governorate, in Borchaly (Lori) and Akhalkalaki. At the end of World War I, Armenia and Georgia had both declared their independence from the Russian Empire. Georgia controlled Lori and Akhalkalaki, both of which were populated primarily by Armenians. The border dispute turned into open military involvement on 7 December 1918. Armenian forces made substantial gains and came within 30 miles of the Georgian capital, Tiflis, when the Allied representatives in the city intervened to demand a ceasefire. Skirmishes continued until the war finally came to an end at midnight on 31 December. A neutral zone, under Allied supervision, was declared in the Lori and Borchalo provinces, which would later be split in between the two states. The large Armenian population of Tiflis and other Georgian-controlled regions was subject to large arrests and other forms of prosecution both during and after the war. Armenia did not succeed in the nearly-obtained original goal of gaining land up to the Khrami River, and the entire war took place on land that had been controlled prior by Georgia, which had made no territorial gains. The result of the war is considered inconclusive, with the Armenian side declaring a successful liberation of Armenian territories and the Georgian side declaring a successful defense against an invasion. Background Russian Revolution After the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government installed the Special Transcaucasian Committee to govern the area. However, after the October Revolution, the Special Transcaucasian Committee was replaced on 11 November 1917 by the Transcaucasian Commissariat, centred in Tbilisi. The Commissariat concluded the Armistice of Erzincan with the Ottoman Empire on 5 December 1917, which ended a localised armed conflict with the Ottoman Empire. The Commissariat actively sought to suppress Bolshevik influence and meanwhile to pursue a path towards Transcaucasian independence from Soviet Russia. That t included establishing a legislative body, the Transcaucasian Sejm to which the Commissariat surrendered its authority on 23 January 1918 after the dispersal of the Russian Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks. The secessionist and anti-Bolshevik agenda eventfully brought Transcaucasian into conflict with the central government. On 3 March, the Russians signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking Russia's exit from World War I. In the treaty, Russia