Treaty of Moscow (1921)

The Treaty of Moscow or Treaty of Brotherhood (Turkish: Moskova Antlaşması, Russian: Московский договор) was a peace treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the Russian SFSR, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, signed on 16 March 1921. Neither the Republic of Turkey nor the Soviet Union was established at the time. The internationally recognized Turkish government at the time was that of Sultan Mehmed VI, but it was not party to the Treaty of Moscow. The latter had signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which had been repudiated by the Turkish National Movement.

Under the Treaty of Moscow, the two governments undertook to establish friendly relations between the countries. The treaty stipulated that the term "Turkey" therein meant the territories included in the National Oath adopted by the Ottoman Parliament on 28 January 1920. Article VI of the Treaty declared all the treaties theretofore concluded between Russia and Turkey to be null and void; under Article II, Turkey ceded Batum and the adjacent area north of the village of Sarp to Georgia (the Kars Oblast went to Turkey); Article III instituted an autonomous Nakhichevan district under Azerbaijan's protectorate; under Article V, the parties agreed to delegate the final elaboration of the status of the Black Sea and the Straits to a future conference of delegates of the littoral states provided that the "full sovereignty" and security of Turkey and "her capital city of Constantinople" were not injured.

Turkey's borders, as well as those of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as defined by the treaty as well as the nearly identical Treaty of Kars (signed on October 13, 1921), are still in existence.

Following the shootdown of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 over the Syria–Turkey border in November 2015 and the rise of Russo-Turkish tensions, members of the Communist Party of Russia proposed annulling the Treaty of Moscow. Initially, the Russian Foreign Ministry considered this action in order to send a political message to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, Moscow ultimately decided against it once Russo-Turkish relations started to improve.