Treaty of Moscow (1921)
The Treaty of Moscow ( Turkish: Türkiye - Sovyet Rusya Dostluk ve Kardeşlik Antlaşması ; Russian: Московский Договор Меҗду Россией и Турцией ) is a peace and friendship agreement that was signed by the Turkish government and the Russian nationality on March 16, 1921 . In it the Soviet government renounced Kars , Ardahan and a few other border districts on the Caucasian border, the Georgian SSR received Batumi .
background
A year earlier, in August 1920, delegates of the Turkish parliament from Ankara , led by Bekir Sami Kunduh, traveled to Moscow to clarify some open questions on the basis of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty . In the end, the conclusion of a treaty failed because Soviet Russia demanded some Turkish-claimed areas in the Caucasus as part of Armenia.
In the course of the Turkish-Armenian War , General Kâzım Karabekir was able to conquer the former Ottoman regions around Kars, Ardahan, Artvin , Batumi and Iğdır from the Armenians in September 1920 . Subsequently, the Treaty of Alexandropol defined Turkey's border with the Caucasus. Ataturk wanted the Soviets to approve this treaty and sent Ali Fuat Cebesoy on December 14, 1920 as ambassador to Moscow. The Soviet government, for its part, sent M. Budu Medivani, Chicherin's brother, to Ankara. The developing Soviet-Turkish relations were affected by two problems. Enver Pasha , the former Ottoman minister of war, was in Moscow and the Azerbaijanis had proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku in 1918 . With the victories of the Turks against the Armenians in Eastern Anatolia and against the Greeks in Western Anatolia, Ataturk established himself as the sole negotiating partner for the Soviets.
contract
It is the first internationally ratified treaty between a state and the resistance movement led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from Ankara. This had formed after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I as an opposition to the Allied occupiers and the Sultan's government.
The negotiated contract comprised 16 paragraphs and three additional sections. Important points were:
- Turkey gives up the claim to the port city of Batumi. Turkish customs should not be levied on goods from Batumi (Article 2)
- The Nakhchivan region becomes part of Azerbaijan as an autonomous territory (Article 3)
- Contracts between the previous governments are void (Article 6)
- Establishment and further development of communication and transport routes between both partners (Article 9)
- Exchange of Prisoners of War of the First World War (Article 13)
- The conclusion of further agreements on political and economic cooperation (Article 14)
- Soviet Russia will ensure that the states under Russian control in the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) will consider the provisions of this treaty as binding in future agreements with Turkey (Article 15)
In the additional sections, the border between Turkey and the Caucasus was defined. In return for Turkey renouncing Batumi, Moscow received gold and weapons. The transport of the gold and the weapons was handled by General Halil Kut in Batumi.
The contract was signed on the Turkish side by Ali Fuat Cebesoy , Rıza Nur and Yusuf Kemal Tengirşenk , on the Russian side by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgi Vasilyevich Chicherin and the member of the Central Committee Jalaladin Korkmazov.
