Erdogan presents Medvedev original Moscow Treaty

MOSCOW (Combined Sources)—Upon arriving in Moscow Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented an original copy of the Moscow Treaty, signed 90-years-ago to the day, to Russian President Demitry Medvedev, along with a commemorative stamp issued in Turkey to mark the 90th anniversary of the illegal treaty, reported PanArmenian.net.

“The document is a turning point in our history. Our eastern borders were recognized under the Moscow agreement, “Erdogan told a press conference in Kremlin.

On March 16, 1921, representatives of Russia’s Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Turkey’s Grand National Assembly signed a treaty, without the consent or participation of Armenian representatives, granting Kars and Surmalu to Turkey and placing Nakhichevan under Azeri control. This illegal document later served as the basis for the Kars Treaty of October, 1921.

The anniversary of the invalid treaty, as well as the timing of the Erdogan-Medvedev trip was the subject of demonstration held at the Russian Embassy in Yerevan, organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation “Nigol Aghbalian” student and youth organization of Armenia.

In Moscow, Medvedev praised Turkey for being a key trade partner with Russia and pledged to increase trade with that country.

The two leaders also agreed that Russia would build a nuclear power plant in Turkey, in the shadow of the current nuclear crisis resulting from the Japan earthquake and Tsunami.

Medvedev said the reactors that Russia plans to construct in Turkey are much newer in design than the ones that are causing trouble in Japan and therefore require no drastic safety improvements, if any, to sustain even the “most devastating” earthquake. That said, Russia is open to discuss “optimizing” the work, he said, according to Moscow Times.

Russia agreed in May to build and own a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu. Erdogan said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later Wednesday that the plan was to lay the foundation for the plant in late April or May.

While speaking to students at Moscow State Institute, Erdogan said that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would benefit Turkey’s efforts to normalize relations with Armenia.

“Resolving the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan will play a role in the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia,” said Erdogan.