The aftermath of the 1917 revolutions saw new republics appear throughout of the old Russian Empire.  In Transcaucasia, the southern part of the Caucasus, the Transcaucasian Commissariat was established in Tbilisi following the November 1917 Bolshevik declaration of support for local self-determination.  The March 1918 Brest-Litovsk treaty and the loss of some Transcaucasian territory to the Ottoman Empire under its terms, however, saw the Commissariat reject the treaty and  declare the independence of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on 22 April 1918.  Barely a month later, the Republic crumbled in the face of Ottoman advances.  Georgia would declare its own independence from the Federation in late May, and Armenia and Azerbaijan would soon follow suit.

Jean Loris-Melicof, a French official, was born in Tbilisi (in modern Georgia) and an ethnic Armenian.  His book on the Transcaucasus, whose original cover is shown here, has been digitised by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and is available here: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k11780744

La révolution russe et les nouvelles républiques transcaucasionnes / Jean Loris-Melicof (1920)  RF.139.14