Bagramyan was well aware of the military situation at the Caucasus front during the first months of the world war . In the winter of 1914 – 15 , the Imperial Russian Army was able to withstand and repel the Ottoman Empire 's offensive at Sarikamish , and to take the fight to its territory . Bagramyan also began reading harrowing reports in the Russian press of what was taking place against his fellow kinsmen across the border : the Ottomans had embarked on a campaign to commit genocide upon their Armenian subjects . He desperately attempted to join the military effort but because he was only seventeen and a railway mechanic , he was not liable to be drafted . This did not dissuade him from trying , as he later remarked , " My place was at the front . " His opportunity came on 16 September 1915 , when he was accepted by the Russian Army as a volunteer . He was assigned to the 116th Reserve Battalion and sent to Akhaltsikhe for basic training . With his training complete in December , he joined the 2nd Caucasus Frontier Regiment of the Russian Expeditionary Corps , which was sent to dislodge the Ottoman Turks in Persia . Bagramyan participated in several battles in Asadabad , Hamedan and Kermanshah , the Russian victories here sending Ottoman forces reeling toward Anatolia
embarked on a campaign
Armenian Genocide
Ivan Bagramyan