MOHEET.COM MARKS NAKHIJEVAN AS ARMENIA’S TERRITORY

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2010 14:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Egyptian Moheet.com portal published a map on which
Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhichevan are marked as a part of Armenia while
Turkey’s borders are outlined in compliance with the Treaty of Sevres.

The map was posted as illustration for an article about Azerbaijan
and Egyptian cinema week in Baku, freelance French journalist Jean
Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Baku has already addressed an official protest note to the Egyptian
Foreign Ministry.

Georgia also received a protest note over a billboard (in the town
of Rustavi), featuring Nakhijevan under the Armenian flag.

The Republic of Artsakh (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.

After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh
and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of
Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control
of Nagorno Karabakh defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding
peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

Nakhijevan is an autonomous republic within Azerbaijan, the homeland of
the ruling Aliyev clan. An Armenian territory until 1923, Nakhijevan
was transferred to Azerbaijan, whose leadership eliminated Armenian
historical and cultural heritage in the area.

The Treaty of Sevres of August 10, 1920, was a peace treaty between
the Entente and Associated Powers on one hand, and the Ottoman Empire
on the other after World War I. The Entente and the Associated Powers
were the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Belgium,
Armenia, the Hejaz (Saudi Arabia), Poland, Portugal, Romania, the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) and Czechoslovakia.

According to the Treaty, which followed the outlines of earlier
agreements between the Allies at the Conference of San Remo in April
1920. Hejaz (now part of Saudi Arabia) and Armenia were to become
independent. Kurdistan was to be given independence, according to
Section III Articles 62-64, the Kurdish vilayet of Mosul would also
be able to join the independent Kurdistan. In accordance with the
wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement, Mesopotamia and Palestine were assigned
under mandate to the tutelage of the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Syria
to that of France. The Dodecanese and Rhodes (already under Italian
occupation since 1911), with portions of southern Anatolia, were to
pass to Italy, while Thrace and Western Anatolia, including the key
port of Smyrna would become part of Greece. The Bosphorus, Dardanelles
and Sea of Marmara were to be demilitarized and internationalized.

Article 89 of the Treaty reads that "Turkey and Armenia as well as
the other High Contracting Parties agree to submit to the arbitration
of the President of the United States of America the question of
the frontier to be fixed between Turkey and Armenia in the Vilayets
of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accept his decision
thereupon, as well as any stipulations he may prescribe as to access
for Armenia to the sea, and as to the demilitarization of any portion
of Turkish territory adjacent to the said frontier."

While the treaty was under discussion, the Turkish national
movement under Mustafa Kemal Pasha split with the monarchy based in
Constantinople, set up a Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara,
successfully fought the Turkish War of Independence and forced the
former wartime Allies to return to the negotiating table. As result,
the Treaty of Lausanne, which replaced the Treaty of Sevres and
recovered large territory in Anatolia and Thrace for the Turks,
was signed.