Yerevan Accords

The **Yerevan Accords**, signed in April of 1895 was a secret agreement between the British, French and Russian Empires to define each respective nations' new zones/spheres of influence in a partitioned Ottoman Empire. The Accord laid the foundation of the eventual “Arab Partition”, British and French participation in the Ottoman Revolution and colonization of the empire.

### Signatories

British EmpireFrench Republic

Russian Empire

Kingdom of Greece (included after 1896 revisions)

## Before the accord: tensions in Europe

Within the context of the Yerevan Accords, there was mounting pressure in the Ottoman Empire by Western and Eastern Powers to make continual territorial and economic concessions, mostly by the French/British against the Russians. For decades, the Western Europeans fought against Russian interference in the Ottoman Empire, especially as the British and Russians were old rivals in Asia.

The Russian Tsar in January of 1895 made a bold move by declaring war against the Ottoman Empire in the midst of the Ottoman Revolution, knowing it would enrage the British and French states, to which the Russians hoped to calm in some way. Due to this rivalry in the past between Britain and Russia, it resulted in the British protecting Ottoman interests against Petrograd, even as relations between both empires were becoming very tense over anti-Armenian massacres in Eastern Anatolia in the months before the Ottoman Revolution. In February of 1895, the Russians received a response to the declaration of war by Britain who were backed by France, pressuring them to end their offensives immediately or risk facing the West backing the Ottomans.

Facing a growing amount of paranoia, instead of stopping their efforts in Anatolia, the Tsar invited the French and British to Yerevan to sort the issue out, and both countries after back and forth discussions, accepted the offer. Looking back however, it might not have been much of a surprise, as France and Britain saw the decay of the Ottomans and saw it’s time was running out, and they were secretly hoping to gain something out of the empire’s collapse. And so, in March of 1895 the British and French met with the Russian delegation to discuss the end of the Ottoman state and what gains might be made by all nations without causing a global war.

## The accord and agreements

At first, no side was willing to accept each other, but disagreements with one and another was most problematic when it came to the British and Russian list of demands. As a result, progress was slow moving throughout the entire month of March, but by early April the Tsar warned the Russian delegation that the alternative to peace via the Erivan Accord would be a world war, and after hearing this, the Russians began to hear the British and French demands out. For the next two weeks, all delegates were able to slowly come to an agreement, and on the 18th of April a final version of the Yerevan Accords was signed and ratified. It’s contents are as follows:

*Russia: Various parts of the Ottoman Eastern Anatolian Vilayets will be directly annexed into Russia, from Lazistan to Adana. Each of these regions will be furthered divided into administrative units, autonomous but loyal to Russian rule. The Tsar will also spearhead the effort of creating modern states for Assyria and Kurdistan. The borders of Assyria will be created in and around the regions of Bitlis and Hakkari. Whereas Kurdistan shall be granted the regions of Erbil and Diyarbakir. Assyria will be administered by an autonomous government led by the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East while Kurdistan is to be controlled by a Kurdish governor directly appointed by Moscow.*

*United Kingdom: In part or in whole of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, the Beyrut, Basra, Hejaz, Damascus and Deir-ez-Zor Vilayets, said territory will be reorganized as colonies under the protection of British colonial and loyal Arab forces. The Baghdad Vilayet, will reorganize into a new country loyal under the Empire.*

*France: In what remains of the Syrian Vilayets, and including the Mosul Vilayet, said territory shall formally become French colonies, again ruled by French colonial and loyal Arab forces.*

*All delegates: Due to conflicting claims on Constantinople, a demilitarized, neutral state shall be created, encompassing the Turkish Straits, the Dardanelles and the entire coast of the Marmara Sea. It will be controlled by a neutral, unbiased volunteer forces, with a congressional government. Within the economy, Britain, France and Russia shall have special privileges and can potentially control certain aspects of its economy.*

## Aftermath of the Accord

The Yerevan is said by many West Asian politicians and world historians to be one of the defining features and moments in modern Middle Eastern history. It defined the rest of the Ottoman Revolution, resulted in the French and British mobilizing for war, colonizing and partitioning the Ottoman Arab world. It split regions that were naturally a part of one and another, such as Lower and Northern Syria. During the Treaty of Baku, the Greek delegation was outraged at Section 4 of the Accord, the Constantinople Section. The Greeks felt that they should be included with economic privileges that the Russian, French and British delegates were granted. This resulted in a revision of the Accords to include Greece in the 4th Section. Thereafter, the Accord was ratified, and colonial borders were adjusted.

### Britain

The British Empire, just 40 years after the signing of the Accords would have most of its terms for London stripped and nullified. As it turns out, acquiring such large swathes of land rich in resources might have been excellent for the British and French economies, but in the long run they only drove their empires into the ground, and ironically it would be the very thing to kill the British Empire. Their Arab colonies would see the most unrest out of both British and French colonies, and even with supplied garrisons it was difficult to pacify European Arab colonies. To counter the growing Pan-Arab movement, which grew due to colonization, the British personally endorsed the Zionist movement in Palestine, only igniting more anti-European hatred among the Arabs. Due to this, from the 1900s onward, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews saw a gradual decline in their diaspora. Increasing amounts of antisemetism caused by the British openly supporting Zionism forced Middle Eastern and North African Jews to flee to Palestine.

The British claimed that they would support Jews fleeing antisemetism and openly encouraged Jewish immigration to Palestine, but their claims were obviously false. They only used the Jews as a scapegoat to counteract anti-British Arab nationalism by enticing Jews into the Levant. They hoped that the Jewish population would turn to the favor of the British. To almost no one’s surprise, this prediction turned out correct.

Palestine in the years following the Ottoman collapse and the first Jewish migrants coming to the Levant would see a power struggle between Arabs and Jews. Gradually, the Jews would strengthen their influence in the Levant, becoming the majority in various cities and settlements before this very fragile system created by Britain collapsed.

In 1910 after the Gaza massacre by joint Jewish-British forces which occurred due to Arab nationalists in the same city assaulting 5 British officers and 20 Jewish settlers, killing 1 soldier and 5 settlers unrest swept all of Palestine which bled into the larger British-Arab colonies. People were once again demanding change, but this time the British government were unable to ignore the Arab calls for either revolution or greater autonomy. After 1 month of an increasing amount of strikes and protest by Arab workers, the British government finally decided to give into reformist measures in Palestine but still held tightly onto their other colonies. The British garrisons stationed in the occupied country were reduced, and Arabs were given were leeway to rule themselves. However, the British were still worried about giving the colony autonomy, as London worried that giving into Palestinian demands would result in further demands in Hejaz, Syria, Beirut, Basra etc. Because of this many exceptions were made, mostly with the growing Jewish community in Palestine.

Since much of the Jewish community was pro-British, London personally created the "Jewish Levies", technically an independent military force from the colonial British garrison and army, but in reality they were nothing more than a puppet of the government, created to enforce British rule while also tip-toeing around previous agreements granting more autonomy to Palestine. Unintentionally, this resulted in giving the Jewish community a disproportionate amount of power compared to Palestinian Arabs, something which heavily influenced the creation of Israel in the 1920s.

Instead, after the Great War, it was clear it was becoming more of an obstacle to continue to hold British overseas colonies, and with the Cairo War beginning 2 years after the war ended, the British were unable to contain the various rebellions that sprung up. With Palestine falling into a conveniently timed civil war, the Egyptians captured the Suez Canal, and soon after Syria, Hejaz, Basra, Mesopotamia, El-Hasa all erupted into civil war alongside Palestine. To add insult to injury, a referendum was created in the Marmara International Zone between the governing council over whether the British should be stripped of their rights into the zone. The vote was quite controversial, as some opposing the idea claimed that it could antagonize British-Eastern European/Balkan relations, but it went ahead anyway. Once the voting was over and tallied, those who voted in favor of revising Section 4 of the Erivan Accord came out to hold 59% of the vote, with those opposed holding 41%. Ultimately though, the main reason behind this idea were the Russians and Greeks who wanted more of the Strait to themselves. It was the first time that the Erivan Accord would be revised since 1896, along with further revisions made to undo British annexations of several Arab regions.

### France

France suffered less in the aftermath of the Erivan Accord than the British, but once it became clear that French occupation of colonies was becoming too costly, Arabs finally gained the upper hand in France by the late 1920s and Northern Syria is seeing growing amounts of unrest, with riots and strikes becoming evermore frequent. France still holds their position within the Marmara Zone and were secretly pleased with the growth of French control and thus growth of profit from trading after the British were kicked out in 1921 and when Russia pulled out in 1926.

### Greece

Greece was the country that in modern times saw great success (and still does) from the Erivan Accord and Treaty of Baku. They strengthened their control of the Marmara Strait after 1921 and 1926. After 1926, the Strait is only controlled by a joint Greek-French administration while it has become increasingly profitable over the years.

### Russia

When the Russian Civil War broke out and resulted in a colossal Russian defeat, they were also forced out of the Marmara Zone. Not by force but by their own will. After Armenia declared independence and Northern Caucasian/Cossack rebels started capturing key cities, the Russians figured it best to pull out of the Zone. When they announced the decision, they assured the public (mostly to not seem weak) that it was only a temporary measure and "soon we will be back in Constantinople" but this never came. Russia was forced out of the Black Sea and thus had no reason to try and come back to Marmara. Secretly, Lavr Kornilov aspires for the day when the Russian delegation can come back to the Straits, either by diplomacy or force.