Treaty of Alexandropol
| Type | Peace treaty |
|---|---|
| Signed | 2-3 December 1920 |
| Location | Alexandropol, First Republic of Armenia |
| Signatories |  First Republic of Armenia  Grand National Assembly of Turkey |
| Full text | |
 tr:Gümrü Antlaşması at Wikisource | |
The Treaty of Alexandropol (Armenian: Ալեքսանդրապոլի պայմանագիր; Template:Lang-tr) was a peace treaty between the First Republic of Armenia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey ending the Turkish-Armenian War, signed on 2-3 December 1920, before the declaration of the Republic of Turkey. It was the first treaty signed by Turkish revolutionaries with an internationally accepted state. The terms of the treaty were negotiated between Kazim Karabekir and Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan.
The tenth item in the agreement stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres, which stipulated the Wilsonian Armenia.
The second item acknowledged the newly established border between the two countries.[1] Essentially, the border agreed to was that identified in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) between the Russian SFSR and Ottoman Empire. The First Republic of Armenia had previously denounced the Brest-Litovsk treaty. However, after armed conflict, the border was accepted by Armenia in the Treaty of Batum (1918). In the administrative vacuum created by the dissolution of Ottoman forces due to the Armistice of Mudros, a new state South West Caucasian Republic headed by Fakhr al-Din Pirioghlu and centered in Kars was formed. It existed along with the British general governorship created during the Entente's intervention in Transcaucasia.[2] It was abolished in 1919 by British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe, after the occupation of Constantinople. This enabled the First Republic of Armenia to fill these territories.[3]
The Treaty of Alexandropol changed the boundary of the First Republic of Armenia to the Ardahan-Kars borderline and ceded over fifty percent of First Republic of Armenia to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
The treaty signed by the Armenian government was to be ratified by the Armenian parliament within a month. This did not take place due to the Russian SFSR occupation of Armenia. In 1921 the treaty was replaced with the Treaty of Kars.
References
- ^ Exact line is stated in Turkish as: "Türkiye ile Ermenistan arasındaki sınır, aşağı Karasu'nun döküldüğü yerden başlayarak Aras Irmağı Kekaç kuzeyine dek Arpaçayı, müteakiben Karahan Deresi, Tignis batısı, Büyük Kimli doğusu, Kızıltaş, Büyük Akbaba Dağı çizgisinden oluşur."
- ^ Caucasian Knot (Moscow-based news agency)
- ^ Pastirmadjian, Garegin. (1918) Why Armenia Should Be Free. Hairenik Publishing Company, Boston. p 40. Pastirmadjian claims that a Greater Armenian State should be created due to a racial superiority of a supposed Armenian race:
In the interest of international justice and permanent peace in the future, the boundaries of the new Armenia ought to be extended as far as the Armenian race extends as an important element of the population, because the Armenians have proved their capacity for self-government even under the almost impossible conditions of Turkish misrule, while Turks and Kurds have again and again proved incapable of governing themselves, much less of governing others.
