Note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR to the Ambassador of Turkey to the RSFSR Ali Fuad.

 A source: USSR foreign policy documents. Volume 4. p. 131. Moscow. State Political Publishing House. 1960

May 21, 1921 No. 11/1053

Mr. Ambassador,

The Russian Government would be happy if the personal feelings and views expressed by you in your letter No. 443 dated May 19, whose highly friendly tone towards the Russian Republic and towards our people, I deeply value, were shared by all Turkish authorities.

With deep regret I must inform you that, according to the latest information received yesterday and today from our military authorities in the Caucasus, the situation of the Russian peasants in the Kars region is becoming more and more unbearable from day to day. Arbitrary arrests, acts of arbitrariness, all kinds of violence, thefts and robberies with the resulting total poverty - such is the treatment that Russians are daily subjected to in these areas. According to a May 17 telegram, all Russian men and adults aged 19 to 45 living in these provinces have recently been declared mobilized and will be sent to forced labor.

The unrest caused by the systematic mistreatment of the Russians living in these provinces has already gripped large sections of the population in neighboring and southern regions. If the Turkish authorities do not immediately take effective measures to end this state of affairs, the consequences will be the most annoying, and our Government will be put in a very delicate position.

Convinced that you, Mr. Ambassador, will understand the exceptional gravity of the situation created by these circumstances, and taking into account the feelings of unshakable friendship towards the Russian Republic, which you reiterated in the above-mentioned note, we firmly hope that your Government will immediately accept all necessary measures in order to end the situation, with the continuation of which we cannot accept.

Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, my sincere assurances of my highest consideration.

Georgy Chicherin

For this sweat, the following answer was received from Ali Fuad dated May 24, 1921, No. 459:

"Mr. Commissioner,

I have no doubt that the Russian Soviet Government is convinced that the sincere feelings of friendship that I had the honor to express in my letter No. 443 dated May 19, 1921 are also the feelings of the people and the Government of Turkey towards the people and the Government of Soviet Russia. and the people and government of Turkey are firmly convinced that the people and government of Russia are inspired by similar feelings towards them.

I have taken all possible measures in order to inform my Government in textual terms of the content of your kind letter No. 11/1053 dated May 21, 1921. I will not hesitate to send Mr. Commissioner the reply that I will receive from Angora, but being convinced that before receiving information from my Government on the issue we are talking about, the correspondence between the Russian Soviet Government and the Turkish Embassy in Moscow cannot lead to any decisive and definite results, and, taking into account that the Embassy often has difficulty in contacting Angora , while the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, through its Representative Office in Angora, with which it has radio contact, can resolve this issue more easily and much faster, I am forced to tell Mr. Commissar,that the most reliable and prompt means for a quick and radical solution of this issue is its direct consideration by the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the RSFSR with the Angora Government through its Representative in this city.

Please accept, Mr. Commissioner, the sincere assurances of my highest consideration. "