The Treaty Vault: Reading Lausanne, Kars, Montreux and the UN Charter as Primary Texts

Why It Matters

Türkiye's positions on its borders, the Turkish Straits, Cyprus, the Events of 1915 and cross-border counter-terrorism rest on a short list of treaty texts: Alexandropol (1920), Moscow and Kars (1921), Lausanne (1923), Montreux (1936), the 1959-60 Cyprus agreements, the 1948 Genocide Convention and Article 51 of the UN Charter. Reading them as primary documents shows what each text provides, who is bound by it, and where states genuinely disagree about interpretation. Separating text from reading is the method of this archive; see Editorial Principles and About Politi Archive.

Background

The treaties below form a chain. The first four settled the post-Ottoman territorial order, Montreux settled the Straits, the Cyprus instruments created a guarantor system, and the last two are universal texts that Ankara invokes on the Events of 1915 and on self-defence. Each subsection states what the text provides, who its parties are, and how it is read.

Alexandropol (2-3 December 1920): the first Turkish-Armenian settlement

The Treaty of Alexandropol (today Gyumri) was signed by the government of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, with a delegation under General Kâzım Karabekir, and the Republic of Armenia, led by Alexander Khatisyan, at the end of the autumn 1920 Turkish-Armenian war. It fixed a frontier along the Arpaçay and Aras rivers, placed limits on Armenian armed forces and obliged Armenia to abandon claims based on the unratified Treaty of Sèvres of 10 August 1920.

The treaty was overtaken within days, when Soviet power replaced the Armenian government in December 1920, and it never took lasting effect. Armenian commentary generally treats it as imposed after military defeat. Turkish sources treat it as the first step toward a border that Moscow and Kars then confirmed with the Soviet-era authorities.

Moscow (16 March 1921) and Kars (13 October 1921): the eastern border

The Treaty of Moscow was concluded between the Ankara government and Soviet Russia. It defined Türkiye's eastern frontier, assigned Batum to Georgia with local autonomy and transit guarantees, and provided that Nakhichevan would be an autonomous territory under Azerbaijan's protection, not to be transferred to a third state.

The Treaty of Kars repeated and confirmed these arrangements. Its parties were Türkiye on one side and the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Soviet republics on the other, with the Russian Federation taking part. Ratifications were exchanged in Yerevan on 11 September 1922. Kars is also the text most often cited on the status of Nakhichevan.

Armenia became independent in 1991 and the border has not changed since. The 2009 Zurich Protocols, signed on 10 October 2009 but never ratified and later annulled by Armenia in 2018, included a mutual recognition of the existing border 'as defined by relevant treaties of international law'. Türkiye also points to the 1990 Armenian Declaration of Independence, which refers to 'Western Armenia'. Armenian authorities have said they seek normalization without preconditions, and the 2022 special-representative talks are covered in The 2005 Joint Historical Commission Proposal and the 2022 Normalization Talks. Our sister publication addresses the Sèvres question directly in Archive of Nations: Is the Treaty of Sèvres Still Valid?.

Lausanne (24 July 1923): the founding peace treaty

The Treaty of Lausanne was signed by Türkiye and the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania and the Serb-Croat-Slovene State. It recognized the new Turkish state, set its western and southern frontiers, and dealt with the Aegean islands (Articles 12-15, with Imbros, Tenedos and the Rabbit Islands remaining Turkish and the Dodecanese going to Italy). Article 20 recognized Britain's annexation of Cyprus, and Articles 37-45 protected non-Muslim minorities on the basis of equal citizenship. The treaty contains no Armenian state clauses of the Sèvres kind. It also carried a separate Straits Convention, later replaced by Montreux, and left the Mosul question to later settlement, which was resolved in 1926.

Lausanne has no expiry clause. The claim that it lapsed in 2023 is a myth, and the treaty is still the legal basis of Türkiye's western and southern frontiers.

Ankara reads Lausanne as a complete and final territorial settlement. Greece also relies on it, particularly for the island sovereignty and demilitarization provisions it contains (such as Article 13 on the northeastern Aegean islands) and for the minority provisions applying to the Muslim minority of Western Thrace. The two states differ on the minority's description (Türkiye says Turkish minority; Greece says Muslim minority) and on demilitarization. Lausanne did not delimit the continental shelf or exclusive economic zones, which are later legal concepts. That gap is the subject of Blue Homeland Files.

Montreux (20 July 1936): the Straits regime

The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits was signed by Türkiye, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom, the USSR, Yugoslavia and Australia, and entered into force on 9 November 1936. Italy acceded in 1938. The United States is not a party. The Convention:

• guarantees freedom of transit for merchant vessels in peacetime (Article 2);
• restricts warship passage by tonnage, class and notice period, with Black Sea states enjoying more favorable conditions (Articles 8-14, 17-18);
• lets Türkiye restore military control of the Straits zone that Lausanne had demilitarized;
• under Article 19, bars the passage of warships of belligerent states in wartime when Türkiye is neutral, while preserving the right of vessels to return to their base;
• under Articles 20-21, gives Türkiye discretion over warship passage when it is at war or considers itself threatened with imminent danger of war.

Since Türkiye applied Article 19 to the Russia-Ukraine war in late February 2022, the Convention has been under unusual scrutiny. The article-level reading is in Montreux Article 19 in Practice, and the wider framework is explained by Region Scope: The Montreux Convention Explained.

Cyprus, 1959-60: Zurich, London and the Treaty of Guarantee

The Zurich Agreement (11 February 1959) and the London Agreement (19 February 1959) were concluded among Türkiye, Greece, the United Kingdom and the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. They produced three treaties in 1960, together with the Constitution: the Treaty concerning the Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, the Treaty of Guarantee, and the Treaty of Alliance.

The Treaty of Guarantee, signed on 16 August 1960, obliges the Republic to maintain its independence, territorial integrity, security and constitutional order. It prohibits union with any other state or partition. Article IV provides for consultation among the three guarantors, and where common action proves impossible:

'each of the three guaranteeing Powers reserves the right to take action with the sole aim of re-establishing the state of affairs established by the present Treaty.'

The bi-communal partnership state broke down after the constitutional crisis of 1963 and the violence of December 1963. UN Security Council Resolution 186 (4 March 1964) then treated the Greek Cypriot-led administration as the government of Cyprus. Following the coup of 15 July 1974, Türkiye intervened on 20 July 1974 citing Article IV. The Security Council called for the withdrawal of foreign military personnel in Resolution 353, and later declared the 15 November 1983 proclamation of the TRNC legally invalid in Resolution 541. The document-by-document record is in The Cyprus Record.

The 1948 Genocide Convention

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948 and entered into force on 12 January 1951. Article II defines genocide as listed acts committed 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part' a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Article VI provides for trial in a competent tribunal of the state where the act occurred or an international penal tribunal, and Article IX gives the International Court of Justice jurisdiction over disputes between parties. Türkiye ratified the Convention in 1950.

In Bosnia v. Serbia (2007) the ICJ confirmed that genocide requires specific intent (dolus specialis), and in Croatia v. Serbia (2015) it held that the Convention does not apply retroactively to events before it bound the parties. On the Events of 1915, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Perinçek v. Switzerland (Grand Chamber, 2015) that Switzerland's conviction of a speaker who denied that the 1915 events were genocide violated freedom of expression, and the Court expressly did not decide whether the events amount to genocide in law.

Article 51 of the UN Charter

The Charter, signed on 26 June 1945 and in force since 24 October 1945, prohibits the threat or use of force in Article 2(4). Article 51 preserves an exception: 'Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.' Measures taken must be reported to the Council at once.

Türkiye has sent such reports in letters to the Security Council on its operations in Syria and Iraq, including in 2015 concerning DAESH (ISIS). The application of Article 51 to attacks by non-state actors operating from another state's territory is contested in international law, and the Security Council has not authorized Türkiye's operations.

Key Players & Positions

The table summarizes the eight texts. 'Ankara's reading' reflects statements by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the 'other readings' column attributes views to the states concerned.

Key actors

• Greece invokes Lausanne for island sovereignty and minority protections, and also cites the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Türkiye is not a party, on maritime zones.
• Armenia relies on historical recognition of the 1915 events as genocide, while it continues the normalization talks launched on 14 January 2022.
• The Greek Cypriot administration (GCASC) is internationally recognized as the Republic of Cyprus and has been an EU member since 1 May 2004. It reads the 1960 instruments as establishing a single state with no right of unilateral guarantor action.
• The United Kingdom is the third guarantor and has retained its Sovereign Base Areas under the 1960 Treaty.
• Russia and Ukraine both appear in the Montreux context, with Ukraine urging closure of the Straits and Russia noting the return-to-base exception.
• The UN Security Council, the ICJ and the ECtHR supply the authoritative interpretations on Cyprus, the intent standard and self-defence.

Source Comparison

International coverage often cites these treaties selectively. The comparison below sets typical framings against what the texts and Turkish official sources say, and readers should verify each against the treaty text itself.

For wider claim-by-claim checks, see Regional Balance and our own Fact Check: Are Turkish and Ottoman Archives Closed to Researchers on 1915?. The source-reading method is explained in the Politi Archive FAQ.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Dolus specialis: the specific intent to destroy a protected group, required for genocide under Article II of the 1948 Convention.
• Guarantor power: a state that has undertaken, under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, to uphold Cyprus's independence and constitutional order. Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom are the three guarantors.
• Straits Convention (Montreux): the regime governing the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles, which replaced the 1923 Lausanne Straits Convention.
• Pacta sunt servanda: the rule that treaties in force bind the parties and must be performed in good faith.
• Armed attack: the Article 51 threshold for self-defence, whose application to non-state actors is debated.
• Events of 1915: Türkiye's official term for the wartime Armenian relocation. The Relocation and Resettlement Law of 27 May 1915 is read in The 27 May 1915 Relocation and Resettlement Law.

Related guides: Politi Archive home, The Cyprus Record, Blue Homeland Files, and 1915 Documents Desk.

Perspective Note

Politi Archive presents analysis from a Türkiye-aligned perspective, grounded in Türkiye's official doctrines and international law arguments, and clearly distinguishes documented fact from interpretation. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents, state archives and official statements, which are cited so readers can verify them independently. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. Published by the Politi Archive Editorial Team.