 Turkish gains (dark red) in the Treaty of Kars (1921) | |
| Type | Peace Treaty |
|---|---|
| Signed | 13 October 1921[1] |
| Location | Kars, Turkey |
| Condition | Ratification |
| Languages | Russian, French[2] |
TheTreaty of Kars[a] was a treaty that established the borders between Turkey and the threeTranscaucasian Soviet republics, which are now the independent republics ofArmenia,Georgia andAzerbaijan.[3][4] The treaty was signed in the city ofKars on 13 October 1921.[1]
Signatories of the Treaty of Kars included representatives from theGrand National Assembly of Turkey, which would declare the Republic of Turkey in 1923, and from theArmenian,Azerbaijani andGeorgianSocialist Soviet Republics with the participation of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The last four parties would become constituent parts of the Soviet Union after the victory of theBolsheviks in theRussian Civil War and theDecember 1922 Union Treaty.[1]
The treaty was the successor treaty to the March 1921Treaty of Moscow,[5] and the December 1920Treaty of Alexandropol.[6] Most of the territories ceded to Turkey in the treaty had previously been acquired byImperial Russia from theOttoman Empire during theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878.[7] The only exception was theSurmalu region, which had been part of theErivan Khanate ofIran before it was annexed by Russia in theTreaty of Turkmenchay after theRusso-Persian War of 1826–1828.[8]
The treaty was signed by the Turkish Provisional Government Representative GeneralKâzım Karabekir, MP and Commander of Eastern FrontVeli Bey, MP Mouhtar Bey, and Ambassador Memduh Şevket Pasha, Soviet Russian AmbassadorYakov Ganetsky, Soviet Armenian Minister of Foreign AffairsAskanaz Mravyan and Minister of Interior Poghos Makintsyan,Soviet Azerbaijani Minister of State ControlBehboud Shahtahtinsky, and Soviet Georgian Minister of Military and Naval AffairsShalva Eliava and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Financial AffairsAlexander Svanidze.[9]
The Treaty of Kars reaffirmed the terms of the earlier Treaty of Moscow concluded in 1921 between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Soviet Russia. It defined the boundaries between the new Turkish Republic and all three Transcaucasian republics.
The treaty provided for the territory of the former Imperial RussianBatum oblast to be divided. The southern half of the former oblast, largely corresponding to the Artvin okrug with the city ofArtvin, would be annexed to Turkey.[3] The northern half, largely corresponding to the Batum okrug with the strategic port city ofBatum, would become part ofSoviet Georgia as theAdjar ASSR (nowAdjara).[3] The treaty required the region to be granted political autonomy because of the largely-Muslimlocal population and for it to implement "an agrarian system in conformity with its own wishes."[2] Caucasus scholarCharles King referred to that part of the treaty as a "rare instance in international law in which the internal administrative structure of one country has been secured by a treaty with another."[4] Additionally, the treaty guaranteed "free transit through the port of Batum for commodities and all materials destined for, or originating in, Turkey, without customs duties and charges, and with the right for Turkey to utilize the port of Batum without special charges."[2]
The treaty created a new boundary between Turkey and Soviet Armenia, defined by theAkhuryan (Arpachay) andAras rivers. Turkey obtained the formerKars oblast, including the cities of Kars,Ardahan, andOltu,Lake Çıldır, and the ruins ofAni.[10] From the formerErivan Governorate, it also obtained theSurmalu uezd, withMount Ararat, the salt mines of Kulp (Tuzluca), and the town ofIgdyr, as well as theAras corridor, a narrow strip of territory between the Aras and Kara-su Rivers that had been part of theErivan uezd.[11]
The Bolsheviks attempted to renegotiate the status of Ani and Kulp and to retain them as part of Soviet Armenia.[12] According toSimon Vratsian, Ganetsky emphasised the "great historical and scientific value" of Ani for theArmenians and declared Kulp to be an "inseparable part of Transcaucasia."[13] However, Turkey refused to renegotiate the terms agreed upon in the Treaty of Moscow, "much to the disappointment of the Soviet side."[12] Most of the Armenian territories ceded to Turkey had already been under Turkish military control since theTurkish invasion of Armenia in 1920.[14] The treaty required Turkish troops to withdraw from an area roughly corresponding to the western half of Armenia's present-dayShirak Province, including the city of Aleksandropol (Gyumri).[10]
Article V of the treaty established the region of Nakhchivan as an autonomous territory under the protection of Azerbaijan.[15] The new autonomous Nakhchivan territory comprised the formerNakhichevan uezd, the Sharur part of theSharur-Daralayaz uezd and the southernmost parts of theErivan uezd of the former Erivan Governorate.[15][14] In 1924, the area was officially declared as theNakhichevan ASSR subordinate to the Azerbaijan SSR.[16] The creation of the new autonomous republic allowed Azerbaijan to share a 18 km boundary with the Aras corridor, which was now controlled by Turkey.[11]
The Kars treaty also impactedIran–Turkey relations. The annexation of the formerlyQajar Iranian district of Surmalu (until theTreaty of Turkmenchay of 1828) and the Aras corridor now gave Turkey a slightly more extensive border with Iran. In the late 1920s, theArarat rebellion erupted in the vicinity of Mount Ararat. As Turkey attempted to quash the rebellion, theKurdish rebels fled across the Iranian border to the eastern flank ofLesser Ararat, which they used "as a haven against the state in their uprising."[17] In response, Turkey crossed the border with Iran and occupied the region.[18] The Lesser Ararat area became the subject of discussion between Turkish and Iranian diplomats in border delineation talks. InTehran in 1932, Iran agreed to cede the area to Turkey in exchange for some territories further south.[19]
However, the agreement was delayed by objections from some Iranian diplomats, who viewed the Lesser Ararat area as strategically important and questioned the validity of the Treaty of Kars.[18] The diplomats felt that Turkey did not have a legitimate claim to the territory of Surmalu, which had been part of Iran before it was ceded to Imperial Russia by theTreaty of Turkmenchay.[18] In addition, because the wording of the Turkmenchay Treaty was vague, they advocated annexing parts of the area.[18] After a constructive meeting withMustafa Kemal Atatürk inAnkara in 1934,Reza Shah, who initially wanted to annex the Aras corridor, finally ordered his diplomats to drop any objections and to accept the new border agreements.[20]
AfterWorld War II, the Soviet Union attempted to annul the treaty and to regain its lost territory. According toNikita Khrushchev, Deputy PremierLavrentiy Beria goaded his fellowGeorgianJoseph Stalin into taking action on the issue, insisting on the return of historical Georgian territories.[21][22] Stalin eventually agreed, and on 7 June 1945, Soviet Foreign MinisterVyacheslav Molotov informed the Turkish ambassador inMoscow that the provinces of Kars, Ardahan and Artvin should be returned to Soviet Union in the name of both the Georgian and the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republics.[22][23] Ankara found itself in a difficult position since it wanted good relations with Moscow but refused to give up the territories. Turkey was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the Second World War.[22] Soviet territorial claims to Turkey were supported by theArmenian CatholicosGeorge VI and by all shades of theArmenian diaspora, including the anti-SovietArmenian Revolutionary Federation.[22] The Soviet government also encouraged Armenians abroad to repatriate to Soviet Armenia to support its claims.[23][24]
The British and the Americans opposed the Soviet territorial claims against Turkey. As theCold War began, the American government saw the claims as part of an "expansionist drive by a Communist empire" and viewed them as reminiscent ofNaziirredentist designs over theSudetenland inCzechoslovakia.[22] TheUS State Department was concerned about the strategic military significance of the Kars Plateau to the Soviets.[25] They concluded that their earliersupport for Armenia since PresidentWoodrow Wilson (1913–1921) had expired since the loss of Armenian independence.[25] The Soviet Union also requested a revision of theMontreux Convention and a military base on theTurkish straits.[23] The State Department advised US PresidentHarry Truman to support Turkey and to oppose the Soviet demands, which he did. Turkey joined the anti-SovietNATO military alliance in 1952.[25]
Following the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet government renounced its territorial claims on Turkey as part of an effort to promote friendly relations with the Middle Eastern country and its alliance partner, the United States.[24] The Soviet Union continued to honor the terms of the treaty untilits dissolution in 1991. However, according toChristopher J. Walker, Moscow revisited the treaty in 1968, when it attempted to negotiate a border adjustment with Turkey in which the ruins of Ani would be transferred to Soviet Armenia in exchange for "one or twoAzeri villages in the region of Mount Akbaba." However, according to Walker, nothing resulted from these talks.[26]
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, thepost-Soviet governments of Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan accepted the Treaty of Kars. Armenia's position is different because of the absence ofdiplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia. In December 2006, Armenian Foreign MinisterVartan Oskanian said that Armenia accepts the treaty as the legal successor to the Armenian SSR but noted that Turkey did not adhere to the terms of the treaty.[27] Specifically, Article XVII called for the "free transit of persons and commodities without any hindrance" among the signatories and that the parties would take "all the measures necessary to maintain and develop as quickly as possible railway, telegraphic, and other communications."[2] However, war between Armenia and Azerbaijan overNagorno-Karabakh led to Turkey and Azerbaijan imposing afull transportation and economic blockade against Armenia and severing diplomatic ties, thus violating that article. Oskanian stated that by this action, Turkey was putting the validity of the treaty into doubt.[27]
The Treaty of Kars is overtly rejected by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation which specifically condemns the treaty as a "gross violation of international law" and argues that because the three Transcaucasian Republics were under the control of Moscow in 1921, their independent consent was questionable.[28] The ARF also questions the validity of the treaty based on the authorities of the sides that concluded it. They contend that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey had no legal authority to sign international treaties.[28] In addition, they argue that because the Soviet Union was not founded until 1922, it was not a recognized state and so also was "not a subject of international law and, naturally, its government had no authority to enter into international treaties."[28]
Following theshootdown of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 over theSyria–Turkey border in November 2015, members of theCommunist Party of Russia proposed annulling the Treaty of Moscow and, by extension, the Treaty of Kars.[29][30] Initially, theRussian Foreign Ministry considered that action to send a political message to the government of Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan.[29] However, Moscow ultimately decided against it in its effort to de-escalatetensions with Ankara.[31]
Media related toTreaty of Kars at Wikimedia Commons
