Treaty of Kars

The Treaty of Kars ( Turkish Kars Antlaşması , Russian Карсский договор , scientific transliteration Karskiy dogovor ) was signed on October 13, 1921 in Kars and ratified on September 11, 1922 in Yerevan . He regulated the border between Turkey and Soviet Russia and the membership of Nakhichevan to the Azerbaijani SSR . The treaty is still in force today and also affects today's Caucasian successor states to the Soviet Union: Georgia , Armenia and Azerbaijan . It is de jure a friendship treaty and was concluded between the Armenian SSR , the Azerbaijani SSR and the Georgian SSR on the one hand, and Turkey (represented by the government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey ) on the other. The basis of the Treaty of Kars is the peace and friendship agreement of 1921 between Soviet Russia and Turkey, concluded a few months earlier .

prehistory

In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War , Russia also annexed the areas of Kars, Ardahan and Batumi from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 . The First World War triggered the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Federal Socialist Soviet Republic (after the October Revolution ), the Democratic Republic of Georgia , the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan were established on the territory of these former empires . The borders between these new states were unclear and were influenced by numerous wars, the Russian Civil War , the Turkish Liberation War and wars between the Caucasian republics over the predominantly Armenian-populated areas of Nagorno-Karabakh (part of Azerbaijan under international law), Sangesur (now part of Armenia), Lori (now part of Armenia) and Javakheti (now part of Georgia).

Content and creation

The Soviet-Turkish border course agreed in the Treaty of Moscow of March 16, 1921 was established by the formal approval of the Caucasian Soviet Republics with the annulment of all previous territorial treaties. The treaty also stipulated that Nakhichevan was granted autonomous status and became part of the Azerbaijani SSR. Turkey ceded Adjara, and with it the port city of Batumi, to Georgia on the condition that Turkey be granted free access to the port of Batum and the population of Ajaria a large degree of local autonomy. In return, Turkey finally won the Kars - Ardahan region (in the Treaty of Alexandropol of December 2, 1920, the Armenian troops had already lost the Kars-Ardahan region to Mustafa Kemal's troops). Regulations were made regarding refugees from the wars of 1918 and 1920, as well as the release of all prisoners of war who had fought on the Caucasian front.

The Caucasian delegations only appeared to sign the agreement, the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani Soviet Republic (like all except Soviet Russia) only had theoretical foreign policy competences. As a result, only Soviet Russia (the Russian SFSR) was invited to the 1922 Congress of the League of Nations in Genoa .

Another story

After World War II , the Soviet Union made it clear that it wanted to cancel the Treaty of Kars in favor of Armenia and Georgia. In March 1945 Stalin demanded the cession of the provinces of Ardahan and Kars and justified his demands as compensation for the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. In autumn 1945, Soviet troops took a stand on the Soviet-Turkish border for a possible invasion of Turkey. The Soviet demands and the request of the Armenians were also presented to the Western Allied leaders, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt . The military project failed, however, because of Churchill's rejection.

After its independence in 1991, Armenia declared the Kars Treaty to be invalid because it was unilaterally signed at the time without the consent of Armenia. From the point of view of the Armenians, the Kars Treaty symbolizes the loss of western Armenia to Turkey and Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan after the Armenian genocide in 1915 and the sell-off of Armenian interests by Russia. In fact , the border with Turkey is not being called into question.

In the course of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as a result of which the Azerbaijanis were expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh and the internationally not recognized Nagorno- Karabakh republic , which emerged as a product of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict . On the other hand, in the spring of 1992 there were military clashes on the border between Nakhchivan and Armenia. The conflict began with Armenian attacks on May 4, 1992, and culminated on May 18, when Armenian troops deployed missiles and tanks. There were 20 dead and 120 injured on the Azerbaijani side. Turkey then threatened military intervention, pointing out its responsibilities for Nakhchivan resulting from this treaty. The Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that it was not about actions of regular units, but of irregulars . The clashes ended shortly afterwards and Turkey withdrew from its threat, but has kept the border with Armenia closed since 1993 after these events. In contravention of the treaty, Turkey has since blocked the Kars - Gyumri (- Tbilisi ) rail link . Even today, Armenia does not recognize the border between the two countries according to this international treaty.

Web links

swell

^ FAZ article Turkey and Armenia - Difficult approach

↑ Human Rights Watch document Overview of areas of armed conflicts in the Former Soviet Union , June 1992, pp.2f. (PDF; 83 kB)

↑ Recommendation of the German Bundestag, point 6 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 125 kB) @1@ 2

[faz-1] FAZ article Turkey and Armenia - Difficult approach

[hrw-2] Human Rights Watch document Overview of areas of armed conflicts in the Former Soviet Union , June 1992, pp.2f. (PDF; 83 kB)