Statements of the Chairmen of the Delegations of the RSFSR, the Armenian SSR and Turkey at the opening of the Kars Conference * September 26, 1921
A source: USSR foreign policy documents. Volume 4. p. 371. Moscow. Gospolitizdat. 1960
STATEMENT
CHAIRMAN OF THE DELEGATION OF THE RSFSR
Y.S. GANETSKY
On behalf of my Government and the entire Russian people, I greet in the person of you, distinguished gentlemen, the delegates of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the glorious heroic Turkish people, who, having raised their arms to the great struggle against slavery and exploitation, fight to the victorious end. At the same time, in the person of the distinguished comrades, representatives from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, I salute the fraternal peoples of these republics, who have waged a merciless struggle side by side with the Russian people for the emancipation of the capitalists and landowners from power.
The heaps of the imperialist robbers of the great powers, having thrown their masses into a bloody battle against each other in 1914, each under the slogan of the liberation of the peoples, and in fact with the aim of further enslaving them, did not assume at all that this bloody drama would end in their own defeat and that the masses of the people, consolidating fraternal ties, will unanimously turn the edge of their weapons against their oppressors, enslavers and exploiters. After the bloody imperialist war, another fire broke out all over the world.
In the west and east, in the north and in the south, in Europe, Asia, all over the globe, the masses of the people revolted and declared battle, the last battle against their notorious enemies. This last fight, which at times is doomed to failure, ultimately cannot but end in the triumph of a great idea.
The selfless Turkish people play an outstanding role in these battles. The Entente imperialists, worried about the strengthening of the new foundations in Turkey, are setting Greece against her. But Turkey must emerge victorious from this new ordeal. Russia and the republics friendly to it are watching with bated breath the heroic struggle of the Turkish people, for its struggle is at the same time their struggle. I express my confidence that the moment is not far off when Greece, realizing its fatal mistake, will offer Turkey to peacefully resolve the disputed issues. And let today's conference give it an impetus to this. All those present here, I hope, are confident that all the tasks facing us today, in principle already solved, will be completed quickly and amicably, loyally and fairly, to the satisfaction of both parties, guided by the common great idea of brotherhood and friendship of all peoples. It was not opponents who gathered here, trying to bargain more from each other, but neighboring peoples striving to live among themselves in peace and brotherhood, peacefully, side by side to work for their country and help each other.
Another great work will end here. The glorious Turkish and Armenian peoples will prove to the whole world not in words, but in deeds that enmity between these peoples has been thrown away once and for all. They do not approach each other with a hidden dagger, but with ardent brotherly love. Not national strife, but the brotherhood of peoples can strengthen the fighting masses; only fraternal unity of the broad masses of all nationalities can bring happiness to the whole world. Only under this slogan will we win.
STATEMENT
CHAIRMAN OF THE DELEGATION OF THE ARMENIAN SSR
A. MRAVYAN
Dear delegates of the Government of the Turkish Grand National Assembly!
The representatives of the fraternal Soviet Transcaucasian Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia have entrusted me with the pleasant duty of greeting you and expressing to you those feelings and wishes that inspire us, the delegates, as well as our peoples at this solemn moment of opening the first conference of Turkey and the Soviet Republics of the Transcaucasus.
We did not come here with a hostile feeling, we have no intention of raising now those controversial questions that we inherited from the bourgeois and nationalist governments, damned questions that caused complications; no, not these tasks, not hostile feelings excite us now, we are delighted with the heroic struggle of the hardworking Turkish people for the freedom of their homeland. We are inspired by a sincere desire and firmly convinced that the people who have risen to defend their homeland will win, and their enemy will be defeated. We are confident that the conference will strengthen these feelings of the Transcaucasian peoples towards the Turkish people, who will know that they have no enemies in their rear and that their neighbors deeply sympathize with them in the struggle against imperialism, which wants to force the will of the people.
Distinguished delegates, we do not come to this conference as winners or losers, but we come to you, representatives of the people who are fighting, and we are happy to tell you that they will emerge victorious from this struggle; the example of the titanic struggle of the great Russian people against the imperialist world serves as a guarantee of this. In this struggle, Soviet Russia could defeat its enemies, since the workers 'and peasants' masses, deeply interested in preserving the gains of the Great October Revolution, rose up to defend themselves with heroic determination. The revolutionary struggle of the Russian people, we are convinced of this, will serve as an example for the Turkish people who will be able to win this struggle against the hired servants of the Entente, who are fighting at this moment in the fields of Anatolia for the right to exploit, for the right to oppress the Turkish people.
The Transcaucasian peoples are confident that this conference will give them solid foundations of a treaty of friendship and brotherhood with the Turkish people, and on the basis of this treaty, from now on we will be able to resolve all controversial issues easily and quickly, as they are resolved between the Soviet Republics.
Inspired by the noblest feelings towards the Turkish people, the delegations of the three Soviet Republics welcomed the conference.
STATEMENT
CHAIRMAN OF THE DELEGATION OF TURKEY
KARABEKIR
The Turkish people did not recognize the Treaty of Sevres imposed on them by force; he did not bow his back before the pressure and threats of the authors of this sad agreement; he rejected those who, against his will and will, pursued a policy of humiliation and hopeless submission. That is why he revolutionized and established a new form of government.
Thus resisting with all their might the tyrannical attack of the West, the Turkish people saw in the East that Great Revolution that shook Soviet Russia with a movement of world significance. He extended a brotherly hand to him and made an alliance with him for the liberation and happiness of the East and for the establishment of the kingdom of friendship and brotherhood between these two peoples.
As for the noble Caucasian peoples, who make up the link between Russia and Turkey, their high importance is increased by the fact that they are valuable members of the High Soviet Power.
I greet you all and greet with all the fervor of my soul our first meeting, for the confirmation and consolidation of the friendship, the foundations of which were laid by us in Moscow, will be for the whole world a sign of the establishment in the East of an era of eternal brotherhood.
With the warmest wishes of the earliest success in the work we are embarking on today, I declare the conference open.
* The Kyars Conference of the three Transcaucasian Soviet republics (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) and Turkey with the participation of a representative of the RSFSR, convened in pursuance of the Moscow Treaty between the RSFSR and Turkey of March 16, 1921 (see Vol. III, document No. 342), continued from September 26 to October 13, 1921
The task of the conference was to regulate political and economic relations between its participants.
The conference ended with the signing of the Kars Treaty of Friendship of October 13, 1921 (see doc. No. 264).
**Cm. doc. No. 264
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