Treaty of Turkmenchay

Treaty of Turkmenchay
Signing ceremony of the treaty
Signed22 February 1828
LocationTurkmenchay, Qajar Iran
Signatories
Languages

The Treaty of Turkmenchay (Persian: عهدنامه ترکمانچای, romanized: Ahdnāme-ye Torkmânčây; Russian: Туркманчайский договор, romanized: Turkmanchayskiy dogovor) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828). It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the 1881 Treaty of Akhal) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede or recognize Russian influence over the territories that formerly were part of Iran.[1][2]

The treaty was signed on 21 February 1828 (5 Sha'ban 1243) in Torkamanchay (a village between Tabriz and Tehran[3]). It made Persia cede the control of several areas in the South Caucasus to Russia: the Erivan Khanate, the Nakhchivan Khanate and the remainder of the Talysh Khanate. The boundary between Russia and Persia was set at the Aras River. These territories are now Armenia, the south of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan and Iğdır Province (now part of Turkey).

The treaty was signed for Persia by the Crown Prince Abbas Mirza and Allah-Yar Khan Asaf al-Daula, chancellor to Shah Fath Ali, and for Russia by General Ivan Paskievich. Similarly to the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, the treaty was imposed on Persia following a Russian military victory. Paskievich threatened to occupy Tehran in five days unless the treaty was signed.[4]

Following this treaty, as well as the Treaty of Gulistan, Russia completed its conquest of the Caucasian territories from Qajar Iran; what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, all of which had formed part of its very concept for centuries.[5][failed verification] The areas north of the Aras River, such as the territory of the contemporary nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan, were Iranian until they were occupied by Russia during the 19th century.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Following the two treaties, the formerly Iranian territories came under Russian, and later Soviet control for approximately 180 years, where Dagestan remains a constituent republic within the Russian Federation to this day. Comprising most of the territory ceded in the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, three separate nations would gain independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991: namely Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

  1. ^ Baddeley, John (1908). The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus. London: Longman, Green and Co. p. 90.
  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. ^ Simon, Payaslian (2008). The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0-230-60858-0. OCLC 1132426878.
  4. ^ Zirisnky, M. “Reza Shah’s abrogation of capitulation, 1927–1928” in The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society Under Riza Shah 1921–1941. Stephanie Cronin (ed.) London: Routledge, 2003, 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".
  5. ^ Fisher et al. 1991, pp. 329–330.
  6. ^ Swietochowski, Tadeusz (1995). Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press. pp. 69, 133. ISBN 978-0-231-07068-3.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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)
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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)
  11. ^ 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)