During World War I, Kurdistan became a battlefield. The armies of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire fought in Ottoman Kurdistan and in Iranian Kurdistan. After the Battle of Sarikamish (January 1915), the Russian army took control of many Ottoman lands. Kurds fought in the Ottoman army across the empire. Many Kurds fought as conscripts in the Ottoman army against the Russian armies. Others fought in the Ottoman army in Mesopotamia. When the Ottoman Empire asked for their help, other Kurds in the tribes of Iranian Kurdistan fought against the Russian Empire there. Kurdish tribes fought for the Ottomans in the Battle of Dilman (April 1915). Other Kurds helped the Russian armies. Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan was one of those who helped the Russians. The Russian Empire made Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan governor of Erzurum when the Russians took military control of that city. Many people in the Kurdish population were persecuted by the Russian army and by Armenian partisans fighting with the Russians. Other Kurds were persecuted by the CUP Ottoman government. The government wanted to Turkify the Kurds, and in 1916, the CUP wanted the Kurdish refugees from the war to separate from one another to make Turkification more easy. Many Kurds themselves took part in the Armenian Genocide, a genocide planned by the government. Armenians were the largest minority in parts of Kurdistan before the Armenian Genocide.