freedom to appoint their own futures. Concordantly, Elviye-i Selâse (three-shire area), as it was known, was part of the Ottoman Empire after the referendum on 14 July, 1918. There were implications of a great land including Batum having been given to Turkey with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with an emphasis on the strategic importance of Batum in external media. After Mondros, however, there were news of the straits being cleaned of mines and the navy vessels of the allies of the Ottoman Empire entering the Black Sea. Once the straits were cleaned, the navy vessels visited the Black Sea ports including Batum. Primarily, such external news that indicated that Batum could be invaded by the British at any moment also claimed that the Turkish army was attacking the Armenian and the British would send their war ships to Batum in case the aforementioned attacked continued. According to the Ottoman archives, the III corps of the Ottoman Empire enforced practices that protected all the people in Batum without discriminating between races, sects or religions in May 1918. Additionally, the Ottoman archives show that the British formed troops from Armenians who were familiar with the English language after they have invaded Batum. This study aims to investigate the perception of Batum within the Turkish and world public opinion in the second half of the year 1918, having analysed internal media, relevant academic and original works, mainly external media and the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister's Office