Treaty of Batum

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Treaty of Batumi
TypePeace treaty
Signed4 June 1918
LocationBatumi, Georgia
ConditionRatification
Signatories
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The Treaty of Batum was signed in Batum on 4 June 1918, between the Ottoman Empire and the three Transcaucasian states: the First Republic of Armenia, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Georgia.[1][2] It was the first treaty of the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and had 14 articles.

Background

On 5 December 1917, the

Transcaucasian Sejm). Enver Pasha offered to surrender all ambitions in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the Ottoman reacquisition of the east Anatolian provinces at Brest-Litovsk at the end of the negotiations.[4] On 5 April, the head of the Transcaucasian delegation Akaki Chkhenkeli accepted the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a basis for more negotiations and wired the governing bodies urging them to accept that position.[5] The mood prevailing in Tiflis was very different. The Armenians pressured the Republic to refuse and acknowledged the existence of a state of war between themselves and the Ottoman Empire.[5] Hostilities resumed, and the Ottoman troops overran new lands to the east, reaching the prewar borders. Approximately 40,000 civilians perished during the retreat of Armenian-Georgian volunteers and the Ottoman advance.[6] According to Clarence Ussher, an American doctor in eastern Anatolia, the number of Armenians killed during the Russian retreat numbered 7,000.[7]

Treaty

On 11 May, a new peace conference opened at Batum.

Battle of Bash Abaran
(21–24 May).

The treaty was signed while the

Echmiadzin. The treaty needed to be examined and confirmed by the Central Powers. Fifteen days after the treaty, delegates from Armenia were asked to come to Constantinople. In the surrendered territories the majority of the 1,250,000 pre-war inhabitants had been Armenians, with more than 400,000 in the ceded sector of Yerevan province alone.[8]

Signatories

Ottoman side:

Armenian side:

Azerbaijani side:

Georgian side:

Statistics

Ethnoreligious composition of territories ceded in the Treaty of Batum[9]
Area Territory occupied Armenians Muslims Georgians Russians
Tiflis Governorate
Akhalkalaki uezd 1,150 sq mi (3,000 km2) 64,000 8,000 8,000 8,000
Akhaltsikhe uezd 1,100 sq mi (2,800 km2) 27,000 18,000 25,000 540
Erivan Governorate
Alexandropol uezd 750 sq mi (1,900 km2) 173,000 3,000 420 2,000
Nakhichevan uezd 1,500 sq mi (3,900 km2)
Surmalu uezd 1,400 sq mi (3,600 km2) 30,000 66,000
Sharur-Daralayaz uezd 600 sq mi (1,600 km2) 500 12,000 60
Erivan uezd 700 sq mi (1,800 km2) 30,000 48,000 1,000
Etchmiadzin uezd 900 sq mi (2,300 km2) 76,000 42,000 400
Treaty of Batum 8,100 sq mi (21,000 km2) 400,500 197,000 33,420 12,000
Ethnoreligious composition of the South Caucasus in 1918[10]
Nation Area (sq mi) Share of Transcaucasia Armenians Muslims Georgians Other
Armenia Armenia 4,000 8% 470,000 168,000 41,000
Georgia (country) Georgia 29,000 41% 535,000 200,000 1,607,000 510,000
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan 36,000 51% 653,000 2,138,900 304,000

References