 While the talks progressed, the Ottoman Third Army retook Erzurum after the Imperial Russian army abandoned it and advanced to the previous frontier with Russia.These setbacks spurred Akaki Chkhenkeli, the Georgian Menshevik leader of the Transcaucasus delegation, to unilaterally inform the Ottomans that he would accept the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as the basis for negotiation, and thereby abandon Armenian claims to portions of Ottoman territory.This concession was repudiated by the Seym, which ordered Chhenkeli and the delegation to return to Tbilisi.