THE TREATY OF SEVRES AND THE ARBITRARY AWARD

OF THE U.S. PRESIDENT W.WILSON:

A CRITICAL VIEW FROM THE DISTANCE OF 100 YERS

VEM, BOOK SERIES N 2

ED. BY G.S.KHOUDINYAN

Yerevan  - LOUSAKN  - 2020

Until 1918, the subject of the Armenian political activity was the liberation of Western Armenia, which bore the country name “Armenia” in international diplomatic documents. The geographical borders of (Western) Armenia were specified in the documents submitted by the Armenian delegation to the Congress of Berlin in 1878, and especially in the May 1895 reform program, adopted by the representatives of the European Powers – Russia, Great Britain and France on May 11, 1895. The May Reform Program marked the specific borders of (Western) Armenia within the six vilayets of the Ottoman Empire. However, on the eve of the World War I, when the task of partition of the Ottoman Empire appeared on the agenda of the Great Powers, their diplomatic strife ended on January 26 (February 8), 1914, with the signing in Constantinople the Russian-Turkish agreement on Armenian reforms. It was concluded by the Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha and the Russian Charge d’Affaires Konstantin Gulkevich. According to this agreement, (Western) Armenia was divided into two regions: a) vilayets of Sebastia, Erzurum, Trabzon, and b) vilayets of Bitlis, Van, Kharberd, Diyarbakir. Thereby, Trabzon was added to the six vilayets of Western Armenia. Armenia’s independence since May 28, 1918, and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I brought the vision of a United and Independent Armenia to the diplomatic agenda. It was discussed at the initial stage of the Paris Peace Conference as a project of “Great Armenia.” The latter included Armenian Cilicia with the access to the Black and Mediterranean seas. However, the acute struggle between the Great Britain and France led to the emergence of a lesser project. It was aimed to create a “Lesser Armenia” through joining most part of the vilayets of Van, Bitlis and Erzurum together with the part of the vilayet of Trabzon with the Republic of Armenia. Trabzon would ensure an access of new Armenia to the Black Sea. The peace treaty, signed on August 10, 1920, in Sevres between the victorious Allies and the Ottoman Empire, //-239  legally secured the rights of the Republic of Armenia over these territories.

Thus, all the argument about the creation of “Great Armenia” under the Treaty of Sevres are without any scientific basis. On the contrary, Western Armenia and Armenian Cilicia were divided into three parts between the Republic of Armenia, the Ottoman Empire and the future Kurdish State.

The Treaty of Sevres, signed on August 10, 1920, was regarded by the Armenian social and political circles only in the context of its Articles 88-93, which are directly related to Armenia. It was quite natural, since these articles restored the right of the Armenian people to their homeland, namely to the part of Western Armenia. These, the above mentioned articles of the Treaty of Sevres not only recognized de jure the Republic of Armenia, including a number of the Transcaucasian Armenian provinces, but also coined the United Armenia with its Eastern and Western parts. The Sevres signatory States, including the defeated in the World War I Turkey, recognized the independence of the United Armenia and agreed to expand its borders by annexing most of the territories from the provinces of Erzurum, Van and Bitlis, as well as a part of the province of Trabzon, thus ensuring the access of Armenia to the Black Sea.

In Addition to the Articles 88-93, the peace Treaty of Sevres contains a number of important items on the restoration of the violated rights of the non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire, Armenians included. Though the terms “Armenia” or “Armenia” are missing in Articles 125, 142, 144, 285 and 288 of the Treaty of Sevres, it is obvious, that they directly refer to the restoration of the violated right of the Ottoman Armenians and their descendants, too.

According to the Articles 226, 228 and 230 of the Treaty, criminal liability against high-ranking Turkish officials was provided not only for their war crimes, but also for their crimes against humanity, which primarily meant the Genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. A comprehensive analysis of these Articles makes it possible to clarify the international obligations undertaken by the criminal Turkish State under the Treaty of Sevres, as well as to discuss the prospects for implementing the mechanisms, proposed in the document regarding the restoration of the violated rights and property damage, endured by the Armenian population who became victims of the crime of Genocide. //-240

Although the Treaty of Sevres was not ratified, some of its provisions were partially implemented by the signatory States. The Treaty of Sevres was not replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, since both the parties to these two contracts, to what extent their subject matter, are not identical.

The decision to delimit the territories of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Armenia was to be implemented by the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson on the basis of the April appeal by the Allied conference in San Remo in common with the relative Articles of the Treaty of Sevres. The Committee upon the Arbitration of the Boundary Between Turkey and Armenia had been raised by the U.S. Department of State in July, 1920, since the President W.Wilson had accepted on May 17 a proposal, made by the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference to arbitrate the frontier between two States. The Committee got relevant documentation of the Commission upon the Armenian Boundaries of the London Conference (convened on February 12 - April 10, 1920), including three notes “On the Borders of Armenia,” compiled by Major General G.Korganian and submitted by the Armenian Integral Delegation of A.Aharonian and Boghos Nubar, as well as the papers of the San Remo Conference (convened on April 18-26 of the same year). On May 22 the Department of State got a memorandum with the map, composed by the Chief of the Military Mission of the Republic of Armenia into the USA, Major General H.Bagratuni. The map was  officially approved at the Government session in Yerevan by August 19, 1920.

The first meeting of the Committee upon the Boundary took place on August 10, 1920. Its experts W.L.Westerman, L.Martin and H.G.Dwight actively collaborated with H.Bagratuni; they shared his approaches and cartographic solutions. On September 28 experts had delivered their “Full Report” to the Department of State; they also included recommendations on the demilitarization of the boundary and their version of the map. On November 11 their work had been handed to the White House. W.Wilson had signed the final copy as a “Decision of the President of the United States of America Respecting the Frontier Between Turkey and Armenia, Access for Armenia to the Sea and the Delimitation of the Turkish Territory Adjacent to the Armenian Frontier” on November 22, 1920. This document is based upon the //-241  project by H.Bagratuni, though the U.S. President’s design had allotted Armenia more territory, especially on the coast of the Black Sea. Thus, published on November 22, 1920, the Arbitral Award of the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is up today the only legal document that defines the border between the heir of the Ottoman Empire - the Republic of Turkey, and the Republic of Armenia.

The arbitration initiated on the issue of the Armenia-Turkish border started on the basis of the political decision and will of the victorious Allies; it was carried out in accordance with the current international legal norms of the given period. Thus, Article 54 of the 1899 Hague Convention for the “Peaceful Settlement of International Conflicts,” which was amended in 1907, states that if the arbitral award has been rendered in accordance with the procedure, that agents of the parties have been notified and the dispute shall be settled, the reward is not subject to reversal once and for all. In the spirit of arbitration, the decision of the arbitrator is accepted by the parties as obligatory; and it is not subject to ratification. The arbitral award shall give rise to appropriate legal repercussions for its participants. When they applied for arbitration, the parties agreed that the arbitrator’s decision would be final, and therefore they undertook to respect it. The arbitral award by the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson on the demarcation of the Armenian-Turkish border is an international legal document, by which the Ottoman-era Turkey, subject to legal rights, was held politically responsible for the Armenian Genocide. This document deprives Turkey of its sovereignty over its former territories. In accordance with the logic of the arbitral award, the exclusion of the Turkish rule from the former victims in the given area and the restoration of the rights of the Western Armenians, who were subjected to the Genocide in their historical homeland, can serve as a sole basis for their return and restoration of the normal life. Therefore, from the viewpoint of the international law, the arbitral award by the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is relevant document of real value, which can serve as a serious challenge and promote not only condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also the advance of the Armenian claim to solve the whole problem of the overcoming the consequences of this crime against Humanity and the Armenian people precisely. //-242