Treaty of Moscow (1921)

The Treaty of Moscow or Treaty of Brotherhood was a friendship treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Bolshevist Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, signed on 16 March 1921. Neither the Republic of Turkey, nor the Soviet Union was established at the time; the internationally recognized Turkish government at the time was that of sultan Mehmed VI, which was no party to the Treaty of Moscow and which had earlier signed the Treaty of Sèvres that had been repudiated by the Kemalists.

Under the Treaty of Moscow, the two governments undertook to establish friendly relations between the countries; the Treaty stipulated that the term "Turkey" therein meant the territories included in the National Oath adopted by the Ottoman Parliament on 28 January 1920.

Article VI of the Treaty declared all the treaties theretofore concluded between Russia and Turkey to be null and void; under Article II, Turkey ceded Batum and the adjacent area North of the village of Sarp to Georgia (Kars Oblast went to Turkey); Article III instituted an autonomous Nakhchivan oblast under Azerbaijan's protectorate; under Article V, the parties agreed to delegate the final elaboration of the status of the Black Sea and the Straits to a future conference of delegates of the littoral states, provided that the "full sovereignty" and security of Turkey and "her capital city of Constantinople" are not injured.

Turkey's borders, as well as those of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as defined by the Treaty of Moscow as well as the identical Treaty of Kars (signed on October 13, 1921) are still in existence.