Turkmen groups had come from their homelands in
distant steppe lands with the purpose of settlement and were assigned in the service of
Seljuk State. Then, they heaped up in the Byzantine borders under the conscious management
and control of this state. It was so natural that they wanted to capture Anatolia with its
plateau climate and abundant grassy places that were suitable for the convenient life
conditions according to their lifestyles.
Since the period of Tugrul Bey, the Armenian, Georgian and
Abhaz rulers connected to the Byzantine were defeated in Azerbaijan and Erran and the
important strategic centres such as Gence, Ani, Kars, etc. were captured. Thus, the
performance of the raids towards the Northern Anatolia got much easier. In the same years,
the Turkmen boys under the command of Gumustigin, Afsin, Ahmesshah, Salar-i Horasan, etc.
were penetrating into Anatolia from the southern borders of the small Arabian governments
that had submitted to Seljuk government.
These raids that seemed to
be organised by unsystematic gangs at first sight were not left uncontrolled actually, and
the principal purpose was not the provision of spoils. The targets of the attacks of
Turkmens that were ordered by Sultan were organised in a systematic manner and the cities
and districts and their stamping grounds were determined before. The attacks and raids
that were applied insistently by Tugrul Bey and Alp Arslan in a diligent manner were
concentrated on the secure roads in military respect and they were condensed within the
environs of the castles that were the shelter of the crowded Byzantine forces. The
detachments for destruction tried to destroy the military concentration of the enemy with
the minimum sacrifice as much as possible and they were concentrated upon the depots for
provisions and war materials. Those that violated the general instructions ordered by
sultan were severely prosecuted. All these peculiarities show that all the aforesaid raids
and manoeuvres were carried out within the framework of a specific plan.
As a matter of fact, the
psychological situations of Turkmens that fought with the obligation to find a homeland
suitable for them should be born in mind. While the sultans were occupied in the other
fronts of the empire with their brigades of guards, the Turkmens and raiders were trying
to wear out the enemy, to manhandle their points of resistance and to intimidate the
people of the region in a proper manner suitable for the Turkish war methods. Thus, they
fulfilled their duty to expedite the invasions in the future. This period of small-scale
preparation lasted continuously for years. The only target of this period was to capture
Anatolia and to transform it into a Turkish homeland. Therefore, two forces had
encountered in the region. One of them was composed of Turkmen groups that had been
considered as the small and trivial groups that did not attract any attention in the years
before 1071. The other was a spook that had to survive with the residues of its old
glorious period, in other words, the Byzantine Empire.
The development of events
had necessitated the annihilation of one force by the other. Either the Byzantine would
stop the avalanche of the invasions that approached along the entire eastern borders the
spits of which were felt within the empire, or the forces approaching towards Anatolia
would totally annihilate the state founded there. The wide plain of Manzikert was the
place in which this definite struggle of the history was fought.
The Byzantine seemed not
aware of the approaching danger. Upon the death of the emperor Konstantinos Dukas (1067),
the empress Eudoxia replaced him on behalf of his three sons. In her period, the
Eastern-Rome was still in conflicts: The empire was undermined due to the ill-timed
interventions of the groups that were founded on the basis of the interests in the palace.
Under these circumstances, the army was fairly neglected, and especially the military
troops in the provinces and in Anatolia were left out of money. These troops despoiled
their own country and plundered their own people. They could not resist against the
Turkmens that came to Malatya under the command of Afsin in 1067 and they could not
prevent their raid to Kayseri. The general Nikephros Boraniates forces that were sent in
order to repulse the Turkmens that moved around Cilicia were dispersed without any fight
or war. The increase of the Turkish pressure obliged the Empress to assign a man as a
ruler of the administration. And he selected Romanos Diogenes as husband who was from a
noble family and gained victories and successes against Pecenek people in the period of
Sardika (Sofia) dukedom although she had found him guilty in the attempt for a coup
d'etat. Therefore, Diogenes was declared as the emperor on the date of 1st January 1068.
Apart from Caesar Ioannes
Dakas who was the brother of the dead emperor and the philosopher Mikhael Psellos who was
the supporter of Dukas's sons deprived of the throne, all the Byzantine historians
mentioned about the bravery, audacity and the military capabilities of Diogenes. However,
according to the same resources, Romanos was a conceited and a self-confident man who
liked flattery. The new emperor undertook the provision of the state of peace in the
country as his primary duty and after two months from his enthronement, he organised an
expedition with an army that he convened in a hurry from Franks, Uz people and Macedonians
in March 1068. Due to the financial corruption, his soldiers were out of the proper
provisions and weapons. However, the first presence of an emperor as the leader of the
army for a long time constituted itself a significant incident. Diogenes came to the
southern region along the way of Kayseri- Sivas-Divrigi, Taurus Mountains- Aleppo, he
captured Menbic and he was welcomed with a great ceremony in his return to Istanbul in the
winter months.
However, in the course of
this expedition, the emperor could not prevent either the destruction of Niksar by the
Turks or their approach to Amorion near Eskişehir that came from the base of Ahlat and
despoil of this famous city. In the following year, Diogenes organised a movement in the
region of Kayseri, Palu and Sivas in his second expedition in 1069, but he could not
achieve any success against the Turkmens who were systematically retreating in front of
the emperor who killed the prisoners of war. Then, the emperor returned to the capital
city empty-handed. As a matter of fact, while the Byzantine armies were in Anatolia, a
raider group had despoiled Kayseri and the other detachments were obliged to run away
under the command of the Armenian Philateros who was assigned as the commander of Malatya
with the rank of general. They had to take shelter in the emperor. Some other Turkmen
raiders had destroyed Konya that was a rich and crowded city considered as the centre of
the province of "Anatolik". These Turkmens were able to reach to Aleppo although
Kataturias waylaid the passages of Cilicia.
to be continued
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