IN ARA PAPIAN’S WORDS, ARMENIA CAN APPLY TO UN INTERNATIONAL COURT TO CHECK
VALIDITY OF WOODROW WILSON’S 1920 DECISION ON ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 14 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The only document,
by which the state frontier between Armenia and Turkey was determined
from legal point of view was Article 89 of the Treaty of Sevres
and this article still can be recognized valid. Ara Papian, former
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Canada,
expressed such an opinion at the November 14 press conference.
In his words, when the legal authorities of the Ottoman Empire, the
Republic of Armenia and another twenty countries signed the Treaty
of Sevres (consequently, Article 89, too) in 1920, they decided that
any decision on Armenian and Turkish border will be acceptable by them.
The drawing of the Armenian-Turkish border was reserved for
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson who signed under that treaty after long
discussions. According to the treaty, the territory of Armenia was
to be 169 thousand sq.km against the current 29 thousand.
Papian expressed an opinion that Armenia can apply to UN International
Court in order to receive a conclusion whether Wilson’s arbiter
decision of 1920 is in force up to present.
"We cannot surpass Turkey in economic, military or other aspects,
we should accentuate the legal side," the speaker emphasized. In
his words, Turkey will not dare to ignore the International Court’s
decisions. He said that there have been cases when a treaty signed
between the states was recognized in several years. He gave the
example of Honduras and Nicaragua when the arbiter decision made by
the Spanish king during the territorial argument between the latters
was fulfilled only 54 years later, as a result of the issue’s being
raised at the UN International Court.