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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated on 1st and  2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.

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Letter from the Peopleʹs Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR to the Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Pasha

June 3, 1920 No. 11/551

The Soviet Government has the honor to acknowledge receipt of a letter in which you express your desire to enter into constant relations with it and to take part in the joint struggle against foreign imperialism, which threatens both countries. The Soviet Government got acquainted with satisfaction with the basic principles of foreign policy of the new Turkish Government, headed by the Grand National Assembly in

Angora.

These principles are as follows:

1)  The declaration of independence of Turkey.

2)  Incorporation of the undisputed Turkish territories into the Turkish state.

3)  The proclamation of Arabia and Syria as independent states.

4)  Decision made by the Grand National Assembly on granting Turkish

Armenia, Kurdistan, Lazistan, Batumi region, Eastern Thrace and all territories with a mixed Turkish‐Arab population the right to determine their own destiny. The Soviet Government, of course, means by this that a free referendum will be held in these areas with the participation of refugees and emigrants who at one time were forced to leave their homeland for reasons beyond their control and who must be returned to their homeland.

5)  Recognition for national minorities in the territories of the new Turkish state, headed by the Grand National Assembly, of all the rights recognized for national minorities in the European states with the most liberal system.

6)  Transfer of the question of the straits to the conference of the Black

Sea coastal states.

7)  Abolition of the regime of capitulations and economic control by foreign states.

8)  The elimination of all kinds of spheres of foreign influence.

The Soviet Government takes note of the determination of the Grand National Assembly to align your work and your military operations against the imperialist governments with the lofty ideal of the liberation of the oppressed peoples. The Soviet Government hopes that diplomatic negotiations will allow the Grand National Assembly to establish between Turkey, on the one hand, and Armenia and Persia, on the other, the exact boundaries that justice and the right of peoples to self‐determination require ‐ the Soviet Government is ready at any time, at the invitation of the parties concerned , take on the duties of an intermediary.

In order to establish friendly relations and lasting friendship between Turkey and Russia, the Soviet Government proposes to immediately establish diplomatic and consular relations. The Soviet Government extends the hand of friendship to all the peoples of the world, remaining invariably faithful to its principle of recognizing the right of each people to self‐determination. The Soviet Government is following with keen interest the heroic struggle waged by the Turkish people for their independence and sovereignty, and in these difficult days for Turkey, it is happy to lay a solid foundation of friendship that should unite the Turkish and Russian peoples.

Bringing the above to your attention, Mr. President of the Grand National Assembly, I have the honor, on behalf of the people of the Workers ʹand Peasantsʹ Federal Republic, to express to you our wishes of success to the peoples of Turkey fighting for their independence.

Peopleʹs Commissar for Foreign Affairs

Chicherin

Publ. into gas. Izvestia Jtè 123 (970), June 9, 1920