THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA AT THE EPICENTER OF AN ETHNOPOLITICAL CONFLICT: MUSLIM UPRISINGS IN ARMENIA’S KARS MARZ IN 1918–1920 AND THE BRITISH POSITION
Against the backdrop of the 1917 Russian revolutions and the collapse of the Caucasus Front, in a tense climate of mutual distrust—and within a foreign-policy environment that outwardly appeared favorable to Armenia—Muslim uprisings erupted. By the Treaty of Batum on June 4, 1918, the Kars marz (province), among other regions, was occupied by the Turks. Following its defeat, Turkey was forced to withdraw from Transcaucasia; on November 22, the Turks left Aleksandropol, and on December 4, Armenian troops entered the city. With the annexation of the Aleksandropol uezd (district) to the Republic of Armenia (RA), the issue of the Kars province was also raised. According to the Armistice of Mudros, the Armenian-Turkish border was to be restored along the projected 1914 Russian-Turkish border line.
The Turkish-Muslim movements of 1918–1920 in the Kars province and within the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia were anti-Armenian and anti-state in nature. The encroachments of the insurgent Muslim population were aimed at redrawing the sovereign borders of the RA proclaimed in May 1918, ultimately leading to the territorial dismemberment of the RA. This aimed to annex not only the regions of Sotk-Basargechar, Karabakh-Artsakh, Zangezur-Syunik, and Nakhichevan to Turkey, but also the Kars province, which held immense strategic importance for the RA.
From the very beginning, Azerbaijan presented territorial claims and ambitions to the Republic of Armenia. The military-political representations of Great Britain and other countries in Transcaucasia carried out an arbitral mission in this matter; however, this mission was fraught with double standards and preconditions. Ultimately, it was not aimed at ensuring the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, thereby facilitating the activation of Muslim insurgent-separatist movements against the sovereign rights of the RA.
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