Georgia’s Place in the Black Sea Straits Convention and Georgian Political Emigration (1920s-1930s)

Abstract

This work sheds light on the activity of Georgian politicians in exile, based on a scientific analysis of archival documents and materials from the émigré press. They actively defended the interests of forcibly Sovietized Georgia at the international conferences in Lausanne and Montreux. The Black Sea, as well as the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, have had special commercial, economic and military significance for both bordering and non-bordering countries since ancient times. Behind the Iron Curtain, Georgian politicians in Europe, fully understanding the strategic importance of the Black Sea, actively fought at the international level for Georgia’s place in the International Convention on the Straits. With the exception of a few scholarly articles, this issue has not been properly studied in Georgian historiography, while Soviet historiography assesses the struggle of Georgian politicians in exile as the actions of the Mensheviks and significantly downplays their contribution.
Of the international agreements concluded regarding the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, the leading role belonged to the Turks. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the Treaty of Mudros, signed on October 30, 1918, provided for the capitulation of the Ottoman Empire to the Entente countries. The Ottoman government was forced to allow the victorious powers of World War I to enter the Black Sea and occupy Constantinople and the Straits. By 1920, the Entente troops occupied Constantinople and the Black Sea straits. From 1918 to July 1920, the British army was stationed in Batumi. On July 7, 1920, the British government returned Batumi to its rightful owner, the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. On August 10, 1920, a treaty was signed in Sèvres, near Paris, according to which the Ottoman Empire lost 3/4 of its territory, and control over the straits was entrusted to a special commission. In February-March 1921, after the occupation and annexation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia by the Russian Red Army, the legitimate government of Georgia was forced into exile and continued the struggle to restore its lost freedom from abroad. By the decree of the Georgian government in exile of November 13, 1922, Akaki Chkhenkeli and Khariton Shavishvili were sent as delegates to the Lausanne Conference. Thanks to the efforts of an unofficial delegation sent by the Georgian national government, Georgia as a Black Sea state was included in the protocols of the Lausanne Conference. The conference also reserved the place for Georgia in Article XII of the Straits Convention. The article mentions an international commission tasked with overseeing the implementation of new rules in the straits. Point III of the same article, nicknamed the „Georgian point,” stated that the states bordering the Black Sea – Georgia and Ukraine, which did not officially participate in the Lausanne Conference – had the right to send a representative to the commission to study the issue of international straits. Despite great efforts, Georgian politicians working in exile were subsequently unable to maintain this position. On July 20, 1936, a new Montreux Convention was signed in the Swiss city of Montreux, by virtue of which the decision of the Lausanne Conference was annulled and Turkey’s full sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits was restored. By this time, Georgian emigration had weakened. In July 1933, the Georgian embassy in Paris was officially closed, which was preceded by the Russian-French non-aggression pact (November 29, 1932).

The Montreux Convention was put to serious use during the Russo-Georgian War in August 2008, when the US government intended to send warships to the Black Sea and the Turkish government refused to allow US ships to pass through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits and activated the Montreux Convention. Despite the efforts of Georgian politicians in exile, Georgia proved powerless to defend the country’s rights under the Straits Convention, something the Soviet Russian government at the time actively opposed.