Dangerous myths of the past

PanARMENIAN.Net - Treaty of Sèvres was never ratified by any of the parties, including Armenia. And it turns out that Armenians once again flatter themselves with illusions about certain rights they have under this agreement. It goes without saying that Western Armenia is a land belonging to the Armenians. However, relying on its return according to some documents signed 90 years ago can prove to be a dangerous delusion. Generally, believing in the return of any territory undermines the spirit of the nation and leads to a defeat, a situation we openly observed with the example of the national liberation war in Artsakh. If the Armenians at least for a moment and at least in their minds withdraw from the liberated territories, they will frustrate the whole world, which now calls for the “return of 7, 5 or at least 2 regions”.

Let’s go back in history. Treaty of Sèvres was signed between the Allies that won the World War I and the Ottoman Empire. On behalf of the Republic of Armenia the treaty was signed by Avetis Aharonian, but the survival war with Turkey made it impossible to ratify the treaty. Under the Articles 88-93 of the Sevres Peace Treaty, Turkey recognized Armenia as a “free and independent state.” Turkey and Armenia agreed to submit to the arbitration of the President of the United States of America the question of the frontier to be fixed between Turkey and Armenia in the Vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accept his decision thereupon, as well as any stipulations he might prescribe as to access for Armenia to the sea. In aggregate the area of Armenia was estimated 110 thousand km2, and the First Republic of Armenia - over 150 thousand km2, both with outlet to the Black Sea. But it was no deal. The arbitral award of Woodrow Wilson remained a wishful thinking, since the U.S. Senate refused to ratify it. The Senate also refused to take the mandate for Armenia, while the UK was given the mandate for Palestine, and France – the mandate for Lebanon (the Ottoman Empire territory within the present borders of Syria and Lebanon). The Armenian-Turkish border was defined by the Treaty of Kars on October 13, 1921, signed and ratified by the Turkish Republic and the Soviet republics of Transcaucasia. No one denounced the Kars Treaty, and the collapse of the USSR has absolutely nothing to do with it. The view expressed in this article may be disputed, but international law clearly defines which agreements are valid and which are not.

Let us only remind that the defining contract between the Allies and Turkey was the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, which recognized the new Turkish Government, with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at the head. In this connection there can be recalled the well-known story of the Balfour Declaration on Palestine, thanks to which the Jews eventually proclaimed the State of Israel. As Lloyd George writes in his “War Memoirs”, when in 1916 the British army faced a deficit of cordite (smokeless powder), they were advised to turn to brilliant chemist, professor of Manchester University, Chaim Weizmann, who later became the first president of Israel, and died in 1952. Weizmann solved the problem. “When our difficulties were overcome thanks to the brilliance of Dr. Weizmann, I said to him: “You have done a great service to the state and I would ask the Prime Minister to present you to His Majesty to express our gratitude to you.” Weizmann said, “I do not want anything for myself, but I would like you to do something for my people,” wrote Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1918. That “something” was the opportunity for repatriation of the Jews to Palestine. However, no one then thought that the Balfour Declaration would become a reason for one of the longest and unresolved conflicts in the Middle East up to this day...