Azerbaijan–Turkey border

The Aras river marks the border for its entire length. The land in the immediate vicinity is flat and undeveloped, with the exception of a four-lane highway and two customs checkpoints. The nearest town is Sədərək, located approximately {{convert|7|km|abbr=on}} east on the Azerbaijani side, while the nearest villages on the Turkish side are Emince and Gödekli in Aralık District, located approximately {{convert|23|km|abbr=on}} northwest.

File:265nakhichevan-assr.gif

File:Russia-Ottoman_wars_map.png

During the 19th century the Caucasus region was contested between the declining Ottoman Empire, Persia and Russia, which was expanding southwards. Russia had conquered most of Persia's Caucasian lands by 1828 and then turned its attention to the Ottoman Empire.{{citation |url= https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79-00976A000200010005-2.pdf|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170124130921/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79-00976A000200010005-2.pdf|url-status= dead|archive-date= January 24, 2017|title=The boundary between Turkey and the USSR |date=January 1952|access-date=8 April 2020}} With the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29), by which Russia gained most of modern Georgia, the Ottomans recognised Russian suzerainty over Eastern Armenia.{{citation|url=https://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS029.pdf|title=International Boundary Study No. 29 – Turkey-USSR Boundary|date=24 February 1964|access-date=8 April 2020|archive-date=23 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023120506/https://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS029.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{cite book | title = The Cambridge Modern History | author = John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton | publisher = Macmillan & Co| year = 1907 | page = 202 }}{{cite book|editor1-last=Tucker|editor1-first=Spencer C.|title=A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1851096725|quote="The Turks recognize Russian possession of Georgia and the khanates of Yerevan (Erivan) and Nakhichevan that had been ceded by Persia to Russia the year before."|page=1154}}

By the Treaty of San Stefano, ending the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Russia gained considerable land in what is now eastern Turkey (termed Western Armenia), extending the Ottoman-Russian frontier south-westwards.{{Citation |last= Hertslet |first= Edward |author-link=Edward Hertslet |year=1891 |contribution= Preliminary Treaty of Peace between Russia and Turkey. Signed at San Stefano 19 February/3 March 1878 (Translation)|title= The Map of Europe by Treaty; which have taken place since the general peace of 1814. With numerous maps and notes |volume= IV (1875–1891) |edition=First |publisher= Her Majesty's Stationery Office |publication-date=1891|location= London |pages= 2672–2696 |url=https://archive.org/stream/mapofeuropebytre04hert#page/2672/mode/2up|access-date=2013-01-04 }}{{Citation |last= Holland|first= Thomas Erskine |author-link= Thomas Erskine Holland |year=1885 |title= The European Concert in the Eastern Question and Other Public Acts |contribution= The Preliminary Treaty of Peace, signed at San Stefano, 17 March 1878 |publisher= Clarendon Press |location= Oxford |pages= 335–348 |url= https://archive.org/stream/europeanconcerti00holluoft#page/334/mode/2up |access-date=2013-03-04 }} Russia's gains of Batumi, Kars and Ardahan were confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin (1878), though it was compelled to hand back part of the area around Bayazid (modern Doğubayazıt) and the Eleşkirt valley.{{Citation |last= Holland|first= Thomas Erskine |author-link= Thomas Erskine Holland |year=1885 |title= The European Concert in the Eastern Question and Other Public Acts |contribution= The Preliminary Treaty of Peace, signed at San Stefano, 17 March 1878 |publisher= Clarendon Press |location= Oxford |pages= 305–06 |url= https://archive.org/stream/europeanconcerti00holluoft#page/334/mode/2up |access-date=2013-03-04 }}

During the First World War Russia invaded the eastern areas of the Ottoman Empire. In the chaos following the 1917 Russian Revolution the new Communist government hastily sought to end its involvement in the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 with Germany and the Ottoman Empire. By this treaty, Russia handed back the areas gained by the earlier Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin.

Seeking to gain independence from both empires, the peoples of the southern Caucasus had declared the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and started peace talks with the Ottomans.{{citation| author=Richard Hovannisian| title=The Armenian people from ancient to modern times| date=1997| pages=292–293| publisher=St. Martin's Press| isbn=978-0-333-61974-2 | oclc=312951712}} (Armenian Perspective){{citation| author=Ezel Kural Shaw| title=Reform, revolution and republic : the rise of modern Turkey (1808-1975)| series=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey| volume=2| year=1977| publisher=Cambridge University Press| oclc=78646544| page=326}} (Turkish Perspective) Internal disagreements led to Georgia leaving the federation in May 1918, followed shortly thereafter by Armenia and Azerbaijan. With the Ottomans having invaded the Caucasus and quickly gained ground, the three new republics were compelled to sign the Treaty of Batum on 4 June 1918, by which they recognised the pre-1878 border.{{citation|author=Charlotte Mathilde Louise Hille | title=State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus| publisher=BRILL| year=2010| isbn=978-9-004-17901-1| page=71}}{{citation|author=Alexander Mikaberidze|author-link=Alexander Mikaberidze| title=Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World| publisher=ABC-CLIO| year=2011| isbn=978-1-598-84337-8| page=201}}

With the Ottoman Empire defeated in Europe and Arabia, the Allied powers planned to partition it via the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres.{{Cite book |last=Helmreich |first=Paul C. |title=From Paris to Sèvres: The Partition of the Ottoman Empire at the Peace Conference of 1919–1920 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |location=Columbus, Ohio |year=1974 |isbn=9780814201701 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/fromparistosevre0000helm/page/320 }} Turkish nationalists were outraged at the treaty, contributing to the outbreak the Turkish War of Independence; the Turkish success in this conflict rendered Sèvres obsolete. Ottoman gains in Armenia were consolidated by the Treaty of Aleksandropol (1920).

Armenia and Azerbaijan had fought for control of Nakhchivan, with Azerbaijan backing the pro-Azeri Republic of Aras. The dispute was rendered moot when, in 1920, Russia's Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and Armenia, ending the independence of both. To avoid an all-out Russo-Turkish war the two nations signed the Treaty of Moscow in March 1921, which created a modified Soviet-Ottoman border, granting Turkey a short strip of land connecting it to Nakhchivan.{{cite book|last=Tsutsiev|first=Arthur|translator=Nora Seligman Favorov|title=Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus|year=2014|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0300153088|page=79}}{{cite book|last=King|first=Charles|author-link=Charles King (professor of international affairs)|title=The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0195177756|page=[https://archive.org/details/ghostoffreedomhi0000king/page/189 189]|url=https://archive.org/details/ghostoffreedomhi0000king/page/189}} Nakhchivan itself was confirmed as an autonomous region of Azerbaijan 1924.{{cite news|last=Shakarian|first=Pietro A.|title=Debunking a Caucasian Myth|url=https://abovyangroup.org/2015/02/23/debunking-a-caucasian-myth/|work=The Abovyan Group|date=23 February 2015|access-date=24 March 2017}} However further fighting took place on the ground and the talks stalled; the treaty's provisions were later confirmed by the Treaty of Kars of October 1921, finalising what is now the Azerbaijan-Turkey border at its current position The border was then demarcated on the ground in March 1925 – July 1926 by a joint Soviet-Turkish commission. Turkey's independence had been recognised by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.{{Citation|date=24 July 1923|title=Treaty of Peace with Turkey signed at Lausanne|place=Lausanne, Switzerland|access-date=28 November 2012|url=http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Treaty_of_Lausanne}}

Azerbaijan was initially incorporated along with Armenia and Georgia in the Transcaucasian SFSR within the USSR, before being split off as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936. The Kars Treaty border remained, despite occasional Soviet protests that it should be amended, notably in 1945.{{cite book|last=Khrushchev|first=Nikita S.|editor=Sergei Khrushchev|translator=George Shriver|title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev: Reformer, 1945–1964|publisher=Penn State University Press|place=University Park, PA|date=2006|page=426|isbn=978-0271058597}}{{cite book|last=Suny|first=Ronald Grigor|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny|title=Looking toward Ararat|publisher=Indiana University Press|place=Bloomington|date=1993|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lookingtowardara00rona/page/165 165–169]|isbn=978-0253207739|url=https://archive.org/details/lookingtowardara00rona/page/165}} Turkey, backed by the US, refused to discuss the matter, and the Soviets, seeking better relations with their southern neighbour, dropped the issue.{{cite book|title=From Encroachment to Involvement: A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1945–1973|first=Yaacov|last=Ro'i|publisher=Transaction Publisher|year=1974|pages=106–107}}

Following Azerbaijan's declaration of independence from the USSR on 18 October 1991, Azerbaijan gained independence and inherited its section of the Turkey-USSR border.

There is only one crossing of the border.{{citation |url=https://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/azerbaijan/|title=Caravanistan – Azerbaijan border crossings |access-date=10 April 2020}} The Umut Bridge carries the D.080/M7 highways across the Aras river. Plans for a railway into Nakhchivan from Turkey have been presented by the Turkish government since 2011, but no action was taken.{{cite news |title=Kars-Igdir-Nakhchivan railway project is under development, Turkish transport minister |url=https://azertag.az/en/xeber/kars_igdir_nakhchivan_railway_project_is_under_development_turkish_transport_minister-610299 |access-date=4 July 2024 |work=Azerbaijan State News Agency |date=16 August 2011}}

• Azerbaijan-Turkey relations
• Sadarak District
• M7 highway (Azerbaijan)
• State road D.080 (Turkey)
• Umut Bridge
• Dilucu
• Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway

{{Reflist}}

{{Borders of Azerbaijan}}

{{Borders of Turkey}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azerbaijan-Turkey border}}

Category:1921 establishments in Azerbaijan

Category:1921 establishments in the Ottoman Empire

Category:1921 in international relations

Category:Azerbaijan–Turkey relations

Category:Geography of Iğdır Province

Category:Borders of Azerbaijan

Category:Borders of Turkey

Category:International borders