‘There are only two international agreements on the recognition of the existing border - the treaties of Moscow and Kars.’ Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Turkish Grand National Assembly, 21 October 2009 It is clear today that whatever be the end-result of the ratification process of the unfortunate pair of Armenia-Turkey protocols, there will no longer be a return to the status quo ante. Certain short-sighted people have let the genie out of the political bottle, and it is now difficult to predict what sort of conduct such a policy will have, though it has nothing to do with us anymore. Consequently, we ought to have given ourselves a head start due yesterday for the imminent re-opening and re-evaluation of various political - and especially legal - matters. Considering Turkey’s position, the question of the legal status of the Treaty of Kars is of particular significance among those issues. Even given the extremely important role of that document in modern Armenian history, the Treaty of Kars has yet to be scrutinised on the basis of international law. The works that do exist are mostly of an ideological nature, analysing the political implications of the treaty without considering the legal essence of the actual document. As the questions on the legal status of the Treaty of Kars are manifold and diverse, let us try to illuminate certain aspects with a few points as far as our capacity allows. The Treaty of Kars (of the 13th of October, 1921) is a bilateral treaty (Договор о дружбе между Армянской ССР, Азербайджанской ССР н Грузинской ССР, с одной стороны, и Турцией - с другой, заключенный при участии РСФСР в Карсе. [Документы внешней политики СССР, т. 4, М., 1960, ст. 420-429]). It was signed, as stated in the document’s preamble, “The Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on the one part and the governments of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic and the Soviet Socialist Republic Georgia, on the other part”, and,’ ‘with the participation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic’. It is clear from this wording that the RSFSR was not party to the Treaty of Kars, but simply a participant; that is to say, it does not bear the entirety of the rights and obligations as provided by the treaty, but simply carries out certain functions as laid out by it. Of course, that function was the role of political supervisor, as the Bolsheviks were still obliged the following by Article 15 of the Treaty of Moscow (of the 16th of March, 1921): “Russia undertakes to take the necessary steps with the Transcaucasian Republics with a view to securing the recognition by the latter, in their agreement with Turkey, of the provisions of the present Treaty which directly concern them” (Soviet Treaty Series, (ed. Leonard Shapiro), v. I, 1917-1928, Washington, 1950, p. 101). The issue of the ratification of the Treaty of Kars. It is widely known that the exchange of instruments of ratifications of the Treaty of Kars took place on the 11th of September, 1922, in Yerevan (Soviet Treaty Series, ibid., p. 136; ‘Documents of Internal Policy of the USSR’, v. 4, Moscow, 1960, p. 429; ‘Armenia in documents of international diplomacy and Soviet foreign policy’, Yerevan, 1972,  p. 527). One party, the Kemalists, ratified the treaty on the 16th of March, 1922 (law #207 of the Turkish Grand National Assembly) (A. Gunduz Okcun, A Guide to Turkish Treaties (1920-1964), Ankara, 1966, p. 4) [setting aside, for the moment, the legal authority of that body]. However, the Treaty of Kars was not ratified by the second party, by none of the so-called Soviet Socialist Republics of Armenia, Georgia or Azerbaijan [temporarily setting aside the question of their authority as well]. The Treaty of Kars was ratified only by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (ВЦЙК), on the same day as the Turks, on the 16th of March, 1922 (the first anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow, of the 16th of March, 1921). And so, such ratification could never be viewed as legal, and consequently as having legal consequences, since that body of Russia did not have and could not have any such authority, neither according to domestic (constitutional) law, nor international law. A state body of a country cannot ratify the treaty signed by some other country or countries. After the military occupation of the countries of the South Caucasus (Azerbaijan in April, 1920, Armenia in December, 1920, and Georgia in February, 1921), until the 30th of December, 1922 - that is, until the official formation of the USSR - the three aforementioned countries were, at the very least as a formality, independent states. So, officially, they were separate and not part of Russia. For example, in the case of Armenia, such a status was codified in the agreement on the official transfer of power signed by the Republic of Armenia and the representative of the RSFSR on the 2nd of December, 1920, where the first clause declared Armenia to be an “independent soviet socialist republic” (Международная политика новейшего времени в договорах, нотах и декларациях. Ч. 3. От снятия блокады с Советской России до десятилетия Октябрьской революции. Вып. 1. Акты Советской дипломатии / Сост. и ред. Проф. Ю.В. Ключников и А.В. Сабанин, М., ХКИД, 1928. ст. 75-76. (‘Modern international politics in agreements, notes and declarations, part 3: from the raising of the blockade with Soviet Russia up to the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Acts of Soviet Diplomacy / Compiled and edited by Prof. Y. V. Klyuchnikov and A. V. Sabanin, Moscow, 1928, pp. 75-76’)). It is necessary to emphasise at this point that during the so-called ratification of the Treaty of Kars by the Kemalists and Bolsheviks (on the 16th of March, 1922), one of the parties to that treaty no longer existed. The Soviet Socialist Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were no more, as, four days prior, on the 12th of March, 1922, a new entity came into being, the Federative Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics of Transcaucasia. Moreover, the newly-formed unit did not consider itself to be part of the RSFSR or under its authority, as codified in the treaty on the formation of the Federative Union (Article 13 of the Union Agreement on the Formation of Federative Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics of Transcaucasia, of the 12th of March, 1922), states, ‘The Union of Republics establishes its relationship with the RSFSR based on the union treaty’) (Образование СССР, Сборник документов, М., 1972, ст. 259. [Formation of the USSR, A Collection of Documents, M., 1972, p. 259.]). Conclusion. The Treaty of Kars was not ratified by even a single country of the South Caucasus, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, and thus the so-called treaty in question bears no legal consequences for those countries. Ara Papian Head of the Modus Vivendi Centre 7 February, 2010