Abstract
On October 13, 2026, the Treaty of Kars, which established the southeastern borders of Georgia and established peace between Georgia and Türkiye, marked its 105th anniversary. In the 1990s, following the dissolution of the USSR and Georgia's attainment of independence, the process of delimitation-demarcation of borders with neighboring states became a priority. In the process of establishing diplomatic relations between Georgia and Turkey and delimiting-demarcating the border, the annexes to the Treaty of Kars were used as one of the main guiding documents. Consequently, today we have one of the most secure and trouble-free border sections with the Republic of Türkiye. However, the debate surrounding the Treaty of Kars has never ended. This debate intensified in particular in 2021, when a part of Georgian public opinion and political circles believed that, upon the 100th anniversary of the Treaty, the Republic of Türkiye would lay claim to the Georgian city of Batumi, and subsequently to Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki, and demand that the Georgian government hand them over to Türkiye. Historically, the issue of the city of Batumi was one of the most significant problems for the Ottoman Empire. The question of transferring this city to the Ottoman Empire was raised at three peace conferences held in 1918 (Brest-Litovsk, Trabzon, Batumi). The Ottoman Minister of Defense, Enver Pasha, referred to Batumi as the “pearl of the Ottoman conquests,” and he himself visited the city after its capture. Furthermore, the Batumi issue became the subject of a struggle between the government of Mustafa Kemal’s (Atatürk) Government of Ankara and Bolshevik Russia (RSFSR), which escalated into a direct confrontation. The final outcome of the Batumi issue was determined in the Treaty of Kars. In light of all the above, it is relevant to examine why the city of Batumi was important to the Ottoman Empire and what diplomatic and political steps were taken to annex it. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand the geopolitical situation that prevailed in the Caucasus region and the world from 1917 to 1921 in order to respond to the dynamic geopolitical processes unfolding in the world today and to avoid repeating the mistakes made by the Democratic Republic of Georgia at the beginning of the last century. This study will examine the foreign policy of the Ottoman Empire during the final years of World War I (1917–1918) with a specific focus on the South Caucasus, and specifically on Georgia. It will also address the geopolitical challenges that Georgia faced in the early years of its independence. Furthermore, the study will investigate the impact of the Treaty of Kars on modern Georgian foreign policy and the challenges in Türkiye –Georgia relations.
Keywords:
Ottoman Empire, Southern Vilayets, Batumi, The Treaty of Kars.