Treaty of Gulistan

Treaty of Gulistan
Treaty of Peace between Imperial Russia and Persian Empire
Northwestern Iran's borders before and after the treaty
LocationGulistan
Effective24 October 1813
Signatories

The Treaty of Gulistan (also spelled Golestan: Russian: Гюлистанский договор, romanized: Gyulistanskiy dogovor; Persian: عهدنامه گلستان, romanized: Ahdnāme-ye Golestān) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now in the Goranboy District of Azerbaijan) as a result of the first full-scale Russo-Persian War (1804 to 1813). The peace negotiations were precipitated by the successful storming of Lankaran by General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky on 1 January 1813. It was the first of a series of treaties (the last being the Akhal Treaty) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede the territories that formerly were part of Iran.[1][2]

The treaty confirmed the ceding and inclusion of what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, most of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and parts of northern Armenia from Iran into the Russian Empire.

The text was prepared by the British diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley, who served as a mediator and wielded a significant degree of influence in the Persian court. It was signed by Nikolai Rtischev for Russia[3] and Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi for Persia.

The result of the treaty was the transfer of the bulk of Iran's Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire. The treaty also directly contributed to the outbreak of the next war of the 19th century: the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828), in which the Iranian forces were defeated once more. In the following Treaty of Turkmenchay, Qajar Iran lost possession of its last remaining Caucasian territories, comprising modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of modern-day Azerbaijan. By 1828, Iran had lost by both treaties all of those integral territories in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus.[4] The area north of the Aras River, including the territory of the contemporary nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan, were part of Iran until they were occupied by Russia during the 19th century.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

As a further direct result and consequence of the Treaty of Gulistan in combination with the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, the formerly Iranian territories came under the Russian, and later the Soviet control for approximately 180 years, and Dagestan remains a constituent republic within the Russian Federation to this day. Comprising most of the territory ceded in Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, three separate nations would gain independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

  1. ^ Cronin, Stephanie (2003). The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society Under Riza Shah 1921–1941. London: Routledge. p. 81. The context of this regime capitulations, of course, is that by the end of the reign of Fath Ali Shah (1798–1834), Iran could no longer defend its independence against the west.... For Iran this was a time of weakness, humiliation and soul-searching as Iranians sought to assert their dignity against overwhelming pressure from the expansionist west".
  2. ^ Adle, Chahryar (2005). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Towards the contemporary period: from the mid-nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. UNESCO. pp. 470–477. ISBN 9789231039850.
  3. ^ (in Russian) Treaty of Gulistan
  4. ^ Fisher et al. 1991, pp. 329–330.
  5. ^ Swietochowski, Tadeusz (1995). Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press. pp. 69, 133. ISBN 978-0-231-07068-3.
  6. ^ L. Batalden, Sandra (1997). The newly independent states of Eurasia: handbook of former Soviet republics. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-89774-940-4.
  7. ^ E. Ebel, Robert, Menon, Rajan (2000). Energy and conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-7425-0063-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Andreeva, Elena (2010). Russia and Iran in the great game: travelogues and orientalism (reprint ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-415-78153-4.
  9. ^ Çiçek, Kemal, Kuran, Ercüment (2000). The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilisation. University of Michigan. ISBN 978-975-6782-18-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Ernest Meyer, Karl, Blair Brysac, Shareen (2006). Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. Basic Books. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-465-04576-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)