The Impact of World War I on Nakhjavan Political Developments from the Treaty of Batum to the Treaty of Kars (1918-1921)

The important Treaty of Kars, signed between the governments of Turkey, the Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia on October 13, 1921, led to the transfer of Nakhjavan to the Republic of Azerbaijan. After the First World War, the Armenians first took political-military steps to annex Nakhjavan to the fledgling Republic of Armenia. However, all their efforts failed due to the presence of strong rivals such as the Soviet Union and Turkey. As a result, the Treaty of Kars not only created a new political unit in the Caucasus, but also from a geopolitical point of view, led to the formation of a new political geography in northwestern Iran. The present descriptive-analytical study, using a historical method based on library and archival documents, mainly aimed to show how the sequence of the events of the early years of World War I influenced the formation of the political unit of Nakhjavan. Therefore, this study concerns the possible impact of the First World War on the political developments in Nakhjavan, from the Batum treaty to the Kars treaty. Although Soviet and Turkish governments were politically and militarily weak due to the consequences of the First World War, the research findings show that the common interests of both fledgling countries paved the way for starting their influence in South Caucasus by handing over Nakhjavan to the Republic of Azerbaijan to keep their further control of the region.