There are no grounds for revising the Kars and Moscow treaties

On March 16, 2021, Armenian politicians "stopped" the validity of the legal Moscow Treaty between the Russia and Turkey, which established the present borders between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

There are often statements in the Armenian press about the need for the country's leadership to proclaim the right to abandon the borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and convince Russia as a signatory of the Moscow Treaty, follow the example of Yerevan. If this happens then, they say in Armenia, Nakhchivan and Karabakh will find themselves in the legal field of the Armenian state and the Turkish province of Kars and Mount Ararat will go to Armenia. Moreover, behind this legal act will follow Yerevan's requirements for international recognition new regional reality. Armenia is assured of the 100-year-old operation of the Moscow of the agreement, according to which Nakhchivan and Karabakh “were given in temporary management to Azerbaijan".

Such statements are made not only the Armenian public figures, but also statesmen. On September 2, 2010, the Regnum agency posted a message about press conference of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia in Yerevan. The Armenian Minister he stated that, the recognition by Armenia of the state border of Turkey, resulting from the Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations between Yerevan and Ankara, does not imply the recognition of the Treaty of Kars by Armenia.

History reference

Kars Treaty signed on October 13, 1921, which entered into force on September 11, 1922, confirmed and clarified the provisions of the Moscow Treaty of March 16 of the same year. The Moscow "Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood" established the northeastern border of Turkey, which still exists. Soviet Russia and Turkey agreed not to recognize “... no peace treaties or other international acts”, because any of the parties would be forced to adopt it.  Then they meant the Sevres Treaty imposed on Turkey by the Entente on the division of the territory of Turkey.

At the 1945 Potsdam conference, Stalin tried to correct mistakes by Lenin, and demanded to transfer to the Soviet Union (Armenian SSR) western territory of Turkey with Mount Ararat. However, the countries of the anti-Hitler the coalitions rejected this demand. After Stalin's death, territorial claims of the USSR against Turkey were withdrawn.

In the interstate agreement between the USSR and Turkey, signed on August 22, 1978 during the official visit of the Turkish Prime Minister to Moscow, the parties confirmed lack of territorial claims to each other.

The ensuing conclusion of identical to the Moscow Kars Treaty in October 1921   between the Kemalists and the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics was completed by legal registration of interstate borders existing in present time.

According to Article 5 of the Treaty, the final development of international status of the Black Sea and Straits was transferred to the "future Conference of the delegates coastal states, provided that its decisions do not cause damage to the full sovereignty of Turkey, as well as the security of Turkey and its capital Constantinople".

In 1975, 35 states, including the USSR, signed the Helsinki Final Act on the inviolability of the existing state borders, formed as a result of the Second World War.

The most interesting thing that may interest the Armenian readers deceived by their politicians is that neither the Moscow nor the Kars treaties indicate the expiration of these documents 100 years after signing or ever. Russia is against revising borders to please Armenia.

Armenia is trying to persuade Russia to abandon treaties with Turkey unilaterally. The phrase widespread in the Armenian media: “On March 16 expires 100 years from the date of the signing of the Moscow Treaty, according to which Kars was given to Turkey for a period of 100 years. The document was signed by the government of the Soviet Russia led by Lenin and Turkey led by Kemal Ataturk."

Sometimes Armenians succeed in this. In 2016, State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation appealed to President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a proposal to terminate the Moscow Treaty.

According to the deputy from "Fair Russia" Oleg Pakholkov, Turkey put forward very difficult conditions in the agreement, including the clause on the creation of Nagorno-Karabakh.  Pakholkov stressed that Armenia will support Russia in this issue.

However, even ardent defenders of Armenians in Russia oppose any revision existing boundaries. It is impossible to blame the responsibility for the Moscow and Kars Treaties of 1921 on modern Russia. Claims against Russia would be very strange, said Special Representative of the State Duma of Russia for Migration and citizenship, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, head of the Institute CIS countries Konstantin Zatulin.

According to Zatulin, the Moscow and Karsky documents are a story that you can analyze as much as you like, prove incompetence, historical the guilt and  shortsightedness of the then Bolshevik government. Can be analyzed Lenin's decree on "Turkish Armenia", which actually drew a line under territorial acquisitions of Russia for decades in the Caucasus ...

We can talk about the role of Russia in supporting Ataturk and achieving his victory. I I do not support dwelling on the events of 1921, added Zatulin.

In an interview for kommersant.ru international lawyer Kira Sazonova emphasizes,

that the Moscow and Kars Treaties are not limited in time ...

The 1978 agreement years between the USSR and Turkey confirmed that territorial claims between powers at that time were absent…. an attempt at today's revision

The Kars Treaty can lead to the most unpredictable consequences. On my opinion, it will do much more harm than good. Hardly today there is a serious politician who really wants to annul Kars Treaty and draw the borders in the Transcaucasia anew, - the Russian lawyer for international issues believes.

   In an interview with Turan, Rizvan Huseynov, a researcher at the Institute for Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan stressed that Moscow will not refuse from treaties with Turkey also because, according to these historical documents Russia received the right to freely use the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to enter the Mediterranean Sea. 

Kamal Ali