Treaty of Alexandropol

The Treaty of Alexandropol (Armenian: Ալեքսանդրապոլի պայմանագիր; Turkish: Gümrü Anlaşması) was a peace treaty between the First Republic of Armenia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey ending the Turkish-Armenian War that had begun on 12 September 1920 with an invasion of Armenia by Turkish forces led by Kazim Karabekir.

Treaty of Alexandropol

Type	Peace treaty
Signed	3 December 1920
Location	Alexandropol, First Republic of Armenia
Signatories	First Republic of Armenia Grand National Assembly of Turkey
tr:Gümrü Anlaşması at Wikisource

It was signed by the Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan in the early hours of 3 December 1920. However, the previous day, the Armenian government in Yerevan had resigned and transferred power to a Soviet government, backed by Soviet Russia and so Khatisyan was no longer acting on behalf of the government of Armenia, and the treaty was technically invalid.[1]

The terms of the treaty was prepared by the Turks, with the Armenians having no input. It required Armenia to cede to Turkey its entire province of Kars together with the Surmalu district of Yerevan province. A large part of the south of Yerevan province was also to be ceded to Azerbaijan.[2]

The second item on the treaty acknowledged the border between the two countries.[3] The Treaty of Alexandropol changed the boundary of the First Republic of Armenia to the Ardahan-Kars borderline and ceded over half of First Republic of Armenia to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The tenth item in the agreement stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres.

The Treaty of Alexandropol was to be ratified by the Armenian Parliament within a month. That did not take place because Soviet Russia occupied Armenia. In the agreement signed by the resigning Armenian government and Soviet Russia's representatives in Yerevan, Russia recognised the boundaries of Armenia as they had been before the Turkish invasion. However, Soviet Russia eventually acceded to Turkey's territorial demands at the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 16 March 1921. It was further ratified as the Treaty of Kars, signed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and, at Soviet Russia's insistence, the three now-Soviet republics of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

See also

• Armenia–Turkey border
• Treaty of Kars

References

1. Hovannisian, Richard (2005), The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity, New York: Routledge, p. 110, ISBN 0-203-00493-0
2. Richard G. Hovanissian, "The Contest for Kars (1914-1921)", p316, in Armenian Kars and Ani, Mazda Publishers 2011.
3. 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."