Treaty of Sevres – Summary of World War I Results

On August 10, 1920, in the suburb commune of Paris Sevres, a peace treaty was signed, summarizing the results of WWI. The agreement was signed, on one hand, by the victor countries (the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Armenia, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Hijaz) and the government of the Ottoman Empire on the other.

On behalf of the Republic of Armenia, the agreement was signed by the head of the Armenian delegation Avetis Aharonyan.

The Treaty of Sevres was one of the five treaties of the Paris Peace Conference by which the new borders of the defeated Ottoman Empire were to be determined.

It is interesting that the other 4 treaties – namely, the treaties of Versailles (with Germany), Saint-Germain (with Austria), Trianon (with Hungary, which lost 72% of its territory along with 3 million ethnic Hungarians, access to the sea, the squadron, 87% of forest areas, 83% of pig iron production, 67% of the financial and banking system), and Neuilly-sur-Seine (with Bulgaria) – would be implemented, and the borders of a number of countries have been unchanged from the time of the signature of the treaties (with the exception of the changes after WWII).

And only the Treaty of Sevres with borders determined by the arbitration decision of US President Woodrow Wilson remained on paper as a result of Turkish-Bolshevik games.

These Sevres boundaries determined the minimum territory that could ensure the physical existence of the Armenian people and the preservation of the independence of their language and culture.

Tigran A. Karapetyan