Gilbert speculated that Kemal’s secular reforms would so alienate Moslem peoples such as the Laze (The Laze people lived between Trebizond and Batum. Although their language was related to Georgian, those in Turkey had converted to Islam) that they would readily accept Russian support against the new Turkish government.
“The Turkish Government must also consider the feelings of the local population in the event of a Russo-Turkish war. The Laze are good soldiers and fanatical Moslems, and as such contributed largely to the war against Greece, but all the recent anti-religious legislation, culminating in the suppression of the Caliphate and, above all, of religious instruction, has caused a widespread feeling of discontent. It is well known, official denials notwithstanding, that in the Vilayet [region] of Trebizond several medressehs [religious schools] are still open, and the despoiled hodjas [ecclesiastics] inflame the population against the Ankara government. In such a state of affairs, the Laze would be only too willing to get Russian support against their own Government, since in Anatolia Russia is [considered] a Moslem Power. The various provinces of Transcaucasia, Azerbaidjan, Georgia, Bokhara, etc., are all more or less largely Moslem, and the Soviet Government is believed to have been either unable or unwilling to interfere with the organized religion to the same extent as Ankara. It is therefore quite possible that in case of invasion the Laze may welcome the Russians as liberators.” (Bagnani 1924a)
Gilbert was unaware, however, of the rebellious turmoil brewing in Georgia during his brief sojourn there. Just two months after Gilbert’s visit to Batum, a nation-wide rebellion rose up in August against the Bolsheviks, who sent their armies in to suppress the insurrection brutally. Thousands of Georgians were imprisoned or executed, and thousands more fled into the mountains. In neighboring Azerbaijan, a Moslem nation speaking a Turkish dialect, Turkish forces were supporting the insurgents against the Bolsheviks, but the Russians brutally quelled the revolt there too before it spread beyond the Caucasus. While the forcible suppression of Moslem courts and schools by Turkey would have roused Moslems in Turkey, Russia’s brutal repression of Moslem rebels in the Caucasus effectively removed them as potential soldiers for Russia against Turkey, and so the Moslem faithful in Anatolia no longer had potential external supporters.