In 1946 Turkey was obliged to return the Armenian provinces

PanARMENIAN.Net - In the fall of 1921 on the bases of the Treaty of Moscow the quadripartite Treaty of Kars, which became the edited version of the Treaty of Moscow, was signed between Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Signing of the Treaty of Kars is quite logical also because the Treaty of Moscow was signed on behalf of Russia and formally didn't relate to the Transcaucasian countries yet. In 1921 the "sovietization" of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan finished but it was still very unsteady for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to entrust these republics to sign international, moreover such significant treaties on their own. According to the second article of the Treaty Kars and Surmalu provinces of Armenia, together with the Mount Ararat passed to Turkey, and Nakhichevan passed to Azerbaijan as its protectorate. Thus at the expense of Armenia Turkey's, Azerbaijani's and Georgia's appetites were satisfied.

It is worth mentioning, that the third article of the Treaty speaks about belonging of Nakhichevan and is closed with the following phrase; "with no right to be passed to a third party", where by "the third party" Iran is understood. However in the Treaty of Kars this phrase was omitted. By the fall of 1921 Iran didn't conceal any more its irritation at the formation of a republic called "Azerbaijan", which claimed to unification with an Iranian Turkish-speaking province of the same name and to establishing a united "Soviet Azerbaijan" with a population of almost 20 million people.

But the most interesting thing is that according to many archive materials the Treaty was signed for a-25-year term. In 1925 the RSFSR Ambassador to Turkey Vinogradov insisted on denunciation of the Russian-Turkish Treaty of 1921 in his official note, announcing that Russia is willing to realize it in one-sided order. At the same time, according to Turkish sources, Ambassador Vinogradov in his oral conversation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains, "We can't wait 25 years and thus we signed the Russian-Turkish Treaty because at that time we were weak. Now we are strong and we insist on reestablishment of the Armenian borders". One of the well-known Turkish statesmen of those times, Qemal Ataturk's successor Ismet Inenu was quick in his response; "The new country needs to keep to its international responsibilities and in 25 years' term Turkey will of course return these territories. In this way the belonging of the three Armenian provinces legally in Turkey's and Azerbaijan's favor since March 16, 1946 is a historical nonsense.

Nevertheless after 1921 the first two-sided official document between USSR and Turkey announcing, that the parties do not have any mutual territorial claims is the international treaty, signed in August 1978 during the official visit of the Turkish Prime Minister Byulent Edjevit to Moscow.

There is one more important article in the treaty, which for some unknown reasons doesn't get any attention. "To provide the opening of the Channels and the freedom for passing of mercantile ships for all nations," states one of the articles. The Bosporus and Dardanelle Channels have always been of great significance for the Turkish home policy, and not to make use of them would be senseless, particularly regarding the Armenian Question. If taken into consideration that the conditions stipulated by the above mentioned article are rather favorable for Russia too, signing such treaties is not excluded in future either.