Armenian-Turkish War of 1920

Armenian-Turkish War of 1920 

a war between Turkey and the Armenian Dashnaks. The Entente and the USA pushed the Dashnaks into war with Turkey, which had pursued its aggressive intentions in the Caucasus. On June 9, Turkish forces under the command of Kâzim Karabekirpasha advanced on Nakhichevan’. The government of the RSFSR attempted through its own mediation to avert war, but the Turks and the Dashnaks rejected the Soviet proposals. The USA and the Entente granted the Dashnaks weapons and a small loan. The Dashnak forces suffered defeats from their numerically superior adversary. On September 29 the Turks captured Sarikamis, then Ardahan, and on October 30, Kars. The Soviet government, concerned for the fate of the Armenian people and the danger for Azerbaijan and Georgia, again offered its mediation proposal to Armenia, but the Dashnaks rejected these offers while hoping for assistance from the Entente and the USA.

By this time, the imperialists were already counting on complications to arise between Soviet Russia and Turkey, and they prepared to negotiate with Turkey at the expense of Armenia and take advantage of Turkey’s anti-Soviet campaign in the Caucasus. Menshevik Georgia refused to help Armenia and on November 6 declared its own neutrality. On November 7, Turkish troops occupied Aleksandropol’ (now Leninakan) and on November 12 the Agin station; they prepared to attack Yerevan. On November 18 the Dashnaks were forced to conclude a truce, and on December 2 they signed the Aleksandropol’ peace treaty, by which Armenia became essentially a satellite of Turkey. However, the Dashnaks no longer had the right to sign a treaty, since the Soviet power had been established in Armenia on November 29. The Soviet government of Armenia did not recognize this treaty. On March 16, 1921, a treaty was signed between Soviet Russia and Turkey that gave Turkey the Kars legion and a few other areas. At the request of Soviet Russia the Turkish forces abandoned the area of Aleksandropol’ and the Nakhichevan region. On October 13, 1921, a single mutual treaty of peace between Turkey and the Soviet republics of Transcaucasia was signed in Kars.

REFERENCES

Kadishev, A. B. Interventsiia igrazhdanskaia voina ν Zakavkaz’e. Moscow, 1960.
Galoian. G. Bor’ba za Sovetskuiu vlast’ ν Armenii. Moscow, 1957.
Bagirov, Iu. A. Iz istorii sovetsko-turetskikh otnoshenii ν 1920–1922. Baku, 1965.

A. B. KADISHEV