Kars territory, August 5th, 1921
The Turkish Caucasus army had been reduced to fewer than 10,000 men with 4 out of the 6 infantry divisions it had available in 1919 redeployed west. Against the 40,000 men of the 11th Red Army it did not have much chance to hold them back. Perhaps it was impossible to hold the Soviets back but it could certainly delay their advance and
Kazim Karabekir was not going the let the Russians take back Kars without a fight. Delaying action, after delaying action would follow as the Soviets inched their way west.
Kars, August 17th, 1921
The Soviets entered Kars. Most of the Muslim population had already fled is fear of Armenian reprisals for the massacre of about 8,000 Armenians when the town had fallen to Karabekir's troops the previous October. [1] The Soviet advance continued. Ardahan would follow on the 21st.
Sarikamis, August 23rd, 1921
The Soviets reached the 1914 border between Russia and the Ottoman empire... and stopped. Lenins's orders had been absolutely clear. A truce was offered to the Turks which Karabekir was quick to accept as soon as it was offered, his small army had inflicted over 1,300 casualties on the Soviets but being outnumbered four to one had suffered twice as many itself and it was nearing its breaking point. Negotiations for a final treaty, between Ali Fuat and Chicherin, never stopped even during the fighting continued based on the new situation on the ground. But Soviet military aid to the Nationalists was gone.
Moscow, September 6th, 1921
With Kars already lost Ali Fuat had not delayed the peace negotiations much more. Turkey had accepted peace with the Soviet Union, technically with the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Republic but anyone could recognize a fiction for what it was, on the 1914 border with Russia. The previous treaty's terms on Nagorno Karabakh going to Azerbaijan were also dropped, the Soviet Union would not accept the Turks dictating to it what it was doing on its own territory. Ali Fuat hadn't even bothered to press on that question the only concession he had tried to get was resumption of Soviet military aid. But the Soviets after having to fight for Kars did not relent on that either. The only concession they had offered was selling weapons to the Nationalists as long as the latter could pay for them in gold and carried them on their own to Turkey. With a British backed Greek naval blockade of the Black sea ports and the Nationalist dependence on Soviet gold [2] it was a hollow one.
Mount Topçam, Pontic mountains, September 14th, 1921
Enver pasha settled in the house of the local jandama [3] commander for the night. Over the past few weeks he had personally led his two regiments of regular cavalry and the irregulars that formed the bulk of his force into a "vigorous" anti-guerrilla campaign. Villages had been burned, the deportations started earlier in the year pressed on with increased intensity, over 20,000 Greeks had been deported by now, with not a few killed outright. At Amasya several hundred prominent Pontic Greeks had been
put on trial and summarily executed on grounds of treason in an attempt to deprive Pontic Greeks of their leadership. Had he hoped for a quiet night he would be bitterly disappointed as he was woken up in the middle of night by massed rifle fire, screams, grenade explosions and the rattle of machine guns. He grabbed his gun and jumped out of the door to find himself in front of a tall black clad man with a Mauser in his hands. Enver's body would be found the next day with multiple rifle shots. How the guerrillas of Koca Anastas, Anastasios Papadopoulos had learned of his whereabouts would be never known as Papadopoulos never reached Greece. In the Turkish Grand National Assembly, some of Enver's supporters would accuse the Kemalists that they had tipped the Greeks of his position. This was of course denied and would never be proven...
Halys/Kizilirmak river, September 12th, 1921 (old calendar)/ September 25th, 1921 (new calendar)
Mustafa Kemal was running out of time. Within the assembly opposition to him was mounting. After the last Greek advances support for the sultan was again on the rise and with it the danger of more uprisings against the Sivas government. With the last Greek advances cutting off the lines of communication with the Italians and the rift with the Soviets, new arms and munitions supplies were dwindling down to nothing. He had taken draconian measures to restore discipline in his army for the time being but chances were that come next spring it was going to be weaker than it currently was. The Turkish army had one last battle in it and now it was the time to give it. The assault columns start crossing the river under cover on night...
[1] Source the encyclopedia of the Armenian genocide here:
http://www.armin.am/armeniansgenocide/en/Encyclopedia_Of_armenian_genocide_Kars
[2] The Nationalists of course still have a significant tax base, to go by Karpat's data the territory they control had a tax income ~7,500,000 Ottoman pounds in 1895 out of a total around ~13,000,000 for the area of modern Turkey. In 1923 that had a GDP of $577 million and revenues of $94 million. Hence at a rough estimate the territory controlled at the moment should have revenues around $54 million. But maintaining of a single soldier would average at a minimum $420 a year (based on the costs of $1.15 per day per soldier that both the Bulgarians and Greeks averaged during the Balkan wars, which may be low by 1921, in 1917 maintaining 15 Greek divisions was supposed to cost 900 million franks a year which is closer to $480-600 per soldier) This also forgets the lack of foreign exchange and gold which in OTL was covered from the Soviets and the Ottoman Red Crescent, in the latter's case in obvious violation of the spirit of the organization.
[3] The Turkish gendarmerie
This now has been fixed