Minister of War Enver Pasha took over personal command of the Ottoman armies invading Russian territory and tried to encircle the Russian Caucasus Army at the Battle of Sarikamish, fought from December 1914 to January 1915. Unprepared for the harsh winter conditions, his forces were routed, losing more than 60,000 men. The retreating Ottoman army indiscriminately destroyed dozens of Ottoman Armenian villages in Bitlis Vilayet, massacring their inhabitants. Returning to Constantinople, Enver Pasha publicly blamed his defeat on Armenians in the region having actively sided with the Russians, which became a consensus among CUP leaders. Claims of Armenian revolts were used to deflect blame for the Ottoman military's failures, especially Sarikamish. Any local incident or discovery of arms in the possession of Armenians was cited as evidence for a coordinated conspiracy against the empire. Akçam concludes that "the allegations of an Armenian revolt in the documents... have no basis in reality but were deliberately fabricated".