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Ara Papian: Woodrow Wilson's Arbitral Award Is A Valid And Legally
Obligatory Document
14.05.2011 | 11:47 | www.nt.am | Noyan Tapan | Articles and Analyses
(Noyan Tapan - 14.05.2011) By Ara Papian
The Armenian Genocide during the World War I and after went down the
history as a crystal-clear example of unpunished crime that reinvented
itself in Nazi extermination of the Jews, the Gypsies and the Slavic
peoples. The annihilation of an entire civilization that occurred
under the apathetic eye of the world at the turn of the XX century
ricocheted right into our lifetime with the destruction of innocent
people in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The principle of an ignored crime
backfired again.
All Genocides have a common denominator - it is brutal and
premeditated killing of hundreds of thousands and millions of people,
huge loses of cultural values and property. Unfortunately, the
Armenian Genocide has something in particular that makes it deferent
and it stands separately from all other Genocides. In addition to
human loses and destruction of our heritage we lost the most valuable
thing that a nation can possess - we lost our Homeland. The Armenian
massacres and deportations uprooted men, women and children who were
living on their ancestral homeland for several millennia, reducing a
once vibrant region into open graves and ghost towns throughout
Anatolia and Western Armenia. It is a sad fact that today there are
less than 60,000 Armenians left in Turkey. After the 1.5 million
killed, the remaining survivors and their descendants are now
dispersed throughout the world.
Armenian territorial rights are based upon several international
instruments. The most important of them is the Arbitral Award by the
United States President Woodrow Wilson, done on November 22, 1920,
which by a binding decision and conclusively defined the boundary
between Armenia and Turkey. Because of the time constraint, I will not
go into details of this document. Especially when the full text of the
Arbitral Award in English (more than 240 pages) with detailed notes
and indices will come out in Yerevan at the end of next month - on May
28. However, it is important to give the general overview of the
Arbitral Award, which we Armenians rightfully consider as the Bible of
our territorial rights.
As you may know, the Republic of Armenia declared her independence on
May 28, 1918. One and half years after this declaration, on January
19, 1920, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers finally agreed to
recognize the government of the Armenian State on the condition that
the recognition should not prejudge the question of the eventual
frontier.1 The United States recognized the Republic of Armenia on
April 23, 1920, on the same condition. By the way, the United States
refused to recognize the independence of Georgia and Azerbaijan
because of their unlawful claims to Armenian territory.2
On April 26, 1920, the Supreme Council meeting at San Remo requested
the President of the United States two things:
1. The United States assume a mandate over Armenia;
2. The President of the United States to make an Arbitral Decision to
fix the boundary of Armenia with Turkey.3 As you may know, the
Armenian mandate was rejected by Senate vote on June 1, 1920.
Nevertheless, the American answer to the second request was positive
and on May 17, 1920, the Secretary of State informed the American
Ambassador in France that the President had agreed to act as
arbitrator.4 For the implementation of the task, the State Department
began to assemble a team of experts in mid-July 1920 headed by
Professor William Westermann, from Wisconsin University. The state
department put together a committee, entitled: `The Committee upon the
Arbitration of the Boundary between Turkey and Armenia'. As the Treaty
of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920, the boundary committee began
its deliberations. The fact of signing the Treaty of Sevres is
important because the compromis, i.e. the application for the
arbitration, is included in the Treaty as Article 89. It must be
underlined that the status of the compromis has nothing to do with the
status of the main Treaty, thus with ratification or non-ratification
of the Treaty. Therefore, as the State Department received the
authenticated copy of the Treaty on October 18, 1920, it was
sufficient for the President officially to conclude the arbitration
without waiting the ratification of the Treaty of Sevres.
On November 22, 1920,5 Woodrow Wilson signed the final award with
seven enclosed appendices. So under the Arbitral Award of November 22,
1920, the border between Armenia and Turkey was settled conclusively
and without appeal, because, as clearly states The Hague Convention6
(article 54 of the 1899 edition and article 81 of the 1907 edition):7
`The award, duly pronounced and notified to the agents of the parties,
settles the dispute definitively and without appeal.' 8
Few words on the content of the Arbitral Award. According to the
Arbitral Award, the title and the rights of the Republic of Armenia
were recognized on the large part of the provinces of Van, Bitlis,
Erzerum and Trebizond. It was less than the half of the territory on
which the Armenian title was recognized by the article 24 of the
Mudros armistice on October 30, 1918. This drastic cutback was due to
far-reaching reduction of native Armenian population, because of the
Armenian Genocide.
Now briefly on the most important issue - the present status of the
Arbitral Award. As indicates the official Manual of the Terminology of
Public International Law of the United Nations, for the arbitral award
to be valid it must meet four criteria:9
Criterion 1: The arbitrators must not have been subjected to any undue
external influence such as coercion, bribery or corruption;
Criterion 2: The production of proofs must have been free from fraud
and the proofs produced must not have contained any essential errors;
Criterion 3: The compromis must have been valid;
Criterion 4: The arbitrators must not have exceeded their powers.
Due to time limits, I will not go into details. However, after
assessing Wilson's Arbitral award against the abovementioned criteria,
it can be declared confidently: The Arbitral Award of Woodrow Wilson
is still a valid and legally obligatory document, because the
indispensable feature of an arbitral award is that it produces an
award that is final and binding. By agreeing to submit the dispute to
arbitration, i.e. signing a compromis, the parties in advance agree to
accept the decision.10 Therefore, in spite of the long-standing
occupation, Turkey does not possess any legal title to the territory
of Wilsonian Armenia. After the arbitral award of the US President,
signed and sealed on November 22, 1920, Turkish presence over there is
not more than an administrative control alike of Turkish status in
Northern Cyprus. Thus, the presence and all acts taken by the Turkish
Republic in the `Wilsonian Armenia' are illegal and invalid, because
the belligerent occupation does not yield lawful rule over a
territory.
It is true that international law by itself will not be able to bring
about a solution for the Armenian-Turkish confrontation. Nonetheless,
there is no doubt that international law is the only way to bring
about a just and peaceful resolution, thus a durable and permanent
solution. The main basis for the lawful solution of long-standing
Armenian- Turkish problem are not the infamous Armenian-Turkish
protocols, but the Arbitral Award, done over 90 years ago in the
capital city of this country by 28th President of the United States of
America Woodrow Thomas Wilson.
Notes
1 G. H. Hackworth, Digest of International Law, Turkish?Armenian
Boundary Question, vol. I, Chapters I-V, Washington, 1940, p. 715.
2 (H. Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law, Cambridge, 1947,
p. 11. Papers Relating to Foreign Relations of the United States,
1920, v. III, Washington, 1936. p. 778.) [hereinafter - FRUS].
3 The Treaties of Peace, 1919?1923, (Preface by Lt.?Col. Lawrence
Martin).vol. I, New York, 1924, p. xxxii.
4 Ibid., p. 783.
5 Cukwurah A. O., The Settlement of Boundary Disputes in International
Law, Manchester, 1967, pp. 165-166.
6 The 1899 Convention was ratified by Turkey on July 12, 1907. (The
Hague Court Reports, op. cit., p. cii).
7 This notion was comprised in article # 54 of the 1899 Convention
with slightly deferent wording: `The award, duly pronounced and
notified to the agents of the parties [at variance, puts an end to]
the dispute definitively and without appeal.'( The Hague Court
Reports, op. cit., p. lxxxix).
8 Ibid.
9 Manual of the Terminology of Public International Law, op.cit., §
508, pp. 588?590. 10 Ibid., p. 27.
From: A. Papazian
Obligatory Document
14.05.2011 | 11:47 | www.nt.am | Noyan Tapan | Articles and Analyses
(Noyan Tapan - 14.05.2011) By Ara Papian
The Armenian Genocide during the World War I and after went down the
history as a crystal-clear example of unpunished crime that reinvented
itself in Nazi extermination of the Jews, the Gypsies and the Slavic
peoples. The annihilation of an entire civilization that occurred
under the apathetic eye of the world at the turn of the XX century
ricocheted right into our lifetime with the destruction of innocent
people in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The principle of an ignored crime
backfired again.
All Genocides have a common denominator - it is brutal and
premeditated killing of hundreds of thousands and millions of people,
huge loses of cultural values and property. Unfortunately, the
Armenian Genocide has something in particular that makes it deferent
and it stands separately from all other Genocides. In addition to
human loses and destruction of our heritage we lost the most valuable
thing that a nation can possess - we lost our Homeland. The Armenian
massacres and deportations uprooted men, women and children who were
living on their ancestral homeland for several millennia, reducing a
once vibrant region into open graves and ghost towns throughout
Anatolia and Western Armenia. It is a sad fact that today there are
less than 60,000 Armenians left in Turkey. After the 1.5 million
killed, the remaining survivors and their descendants are now
dispersed throughout the world.
Armenian territorial rights are based upon several international
instruments. The most important of them is the Arbitral Award by the
United States President Woodrow Wilson, done on November 22, 1920,
which by a binding decision and conclusively defined the boundary
between Armenia and Turkey. Because of the time constraint, I will not
go into details of this document. Especially when the full text of the
Arbitral Award in English (more than 240 pages) with detailed notes
and indices will come out in Yerevan at the end of next month - on May
28. However, it is important to give the general overview of the
Arbitral Award, which we Armenians rightfully consider as the Bible of
our territorial rights.
As you may know, the Republic of Armenia declared her independence on
May 28, 1918. One and half years after this declaration, on January
19, 1920, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers finally agreed to
recognize the government of the Armenian State on the condition that
the recognition should not prejudge the question of the eventual
frontier.1 The United States recognized the Republic of Armenia on
April 23, 1920, on the same condition. By the way, the United States
refused to recognize the independence of Georgia and Azerbaijan
because of their unlawful claims to Armenian territory.2
On April 26, 1920, the Supreme Council meeting at San Remo requested
the President of the United States two things:
1. The United States assume a mandate over Armenia;
2. The President of the United States to make an Arbitral Decision to
fix the boundary of Armenia with Turkey.3 As you may know, the
Armenian mandate was rejected by Senate vote on June 1, 1920.
Nevertheless, the American answer to the second request was positive
and on May 17, 1920, the Secretary of State informed the American
Ambassador in France that the President had agreed to act as
arbitrator.4 For the implementation of the task, the State Department
began to assemble a team of experts in mid-July 1920 headed by
Professor William Westermann, from Wisconsin University. The state
department put together a committee, entitled: `The Committee upon the
Arbitration of the Boundary between Turkey and Armenia'. As the Treaty
of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920, the boundary committee began
its deliberations. The fact of signing the Treaty of Sevres is
important because the compromis, i.e. the application for the
arbitration, is included in the Treaty as Article 89. It must be
underlined that the status of the compromis has nothing to do with the
status of the main Treaty, thus with ratification or non-ratification
of the Treaty. Therefore, as the State Department received the
authenticated copy of the Treaty on October 18, 1920, it was
sufficient for the President officially to conclude the arbitration
without waiting the ratification of the Treaty of Sevres.
On November 22, 1920,5 Woodrow Wilson signed the final award with
seven enclosed appendices. So under the Arbitral Award of November 22,
1920, the border between Armenia and Turkey was settled conclusively
and without appeal, because, as clearly states The Hague Convention6
(article 54 of the 1899 edition and article 81 of the 1907 edition):7
`The award, duly pronounced and notified to the agents of the parties,
settles the dispute definitively and without appeal.' 8
Few words on the content of the Arbitral Award. According to the
Arbitral Award, the title and the rights of the Republic of Armenia
were recognized on the large part of the provinces of Van, Bitlis,
Erzerum and Trebizond. It was less than the half of the territory on
which the Armenian title was recognized by the article 24 of the
Mudros armistice on October 30, 1918. This drastic cutback was due to
far-reaching reduction of native Armenian population, because of the
Armenian Genocide.
Now briefly on the most important issue - the present status of the
Arbitral Award. As indicates the official Manual of the Terminology of
Public International Law of the United Nations, for the arbitral award
to be valid it must meet four criteria:9
Criterion 1: The arbitrators must not have been subjected to any undue
external influence such as coercion, bribery or corruption;
Criterion 2: The production of proofs must have been free from fraud
and the proofs produced must not have contained any essential errors;
Criterion 3: The compromis must have been valid;
Criterion 4: The arbitrators must not have exceeded their powers.
Due to time limits, I will not go into details. However, after
assessing Wilson's Arbitral award against the abovementioned criteria,
it can be declared confidently: The Arbitral Award of Woodrow Wilson
is still a valid and legally obligatory document, because the
indispensable feature of an arbitral award is that it produces an
award that is final and binding. By agreeing to submit the dispute to
arbitration, i.e. signing a compromis, the parties in advance agree to
accept the decision.10 Therefore, in spite of the long-standing
occupation, Turkey does not possess any legal title to the territory
of Wilsonian Armenia. After the arbitral award of the US President,
signed and sealed on November 22, 1920, Turkish presence over there is
not more than an administrative control alike of Turkish status in
Northern Cyprus. Thus, the presence and all acts taken by the Turkish
Republic in the `Wilsonian Armenia' are illegal and invalid, because
the belligerent occupation does not yield lawful rule over a
territory.
It is true that international law by itself will not be able to bring
about a solution for the Armenian-Turkish confrontation. Nonetheless,
there is no doubt that international law is the only way to bring
about a just and peaceful resolution, thus a durable and permanent
solution. The main basis for the lawful solution of long-standing
Armenian- Turkish problem are not the infamous Armenian-Turkish
protocols, but the Arbitral Award, done over 90 years ago in the
capital city of this country by 28th President of the United States of
America Woodrow Thomas Wilson.
Notes
1 G. H. Hackworth, Digest of International Law, Turkish?Armenian
Boundary Question, vol. I, Chapters I-V, Washington, 1940, p. 715.
2 (H. Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law, Cambridge, 1947,
p. 11. Papers Relating to Foreign Relations of the United States,
1920, v. III, Washington, 1936. p. 778.) [hereinafter - FRUS].
3 The Treaties of Peace, 1919?1923, (Preface by Lt.?Col. Lawrence
Martin).vol. I, New York, 1924, p. xxxii.
4 Ibid., p. 783.
5 Cukwurah A. O., The Settlement of Boundary Disputes in International
Law, Manchester, 1967, pp. 165-166.
6 The 1899 Convention was ratified by Turkey on July 12, 1907. (The
Hague Court Reports, op. cit., p. cii).
7 This notion was comprised in article # 54 of the 1899 Convention
with slightly deferent wording: `The award, duly pronounced and
notified to the agents of the parties [at variance, puts an end to]
the dispute definitively and without appeal.'( The Hague Court
Reports, op. cit., p. lxxxix).
8 Ibid.
9 Manual of the Terminology of Public International Law, op.cit., §
508, pp. 588?590. 10 Ibid., p. 27.
From: A. Papazian