Turkey-Georgia relations in the Period of National Struggle (1919-1921)

After mentioning the demographic, economic, geographical, geostrategic and political situation of Georgians' existence in the Caucasus lands, attention has been drawn to Turkish-Georgian relations. According to official resources, it has been observed that the relations between Anatolian Turks and Georgians (Kartvels) started after the entrance of Great Seljuks to Anatolia and continued in the period of the Rum Seljuk Sultanate. The view of what Georgia means for the Anatolian Turks has emerged from this point. In the first part of the thesis, Turkey Seljuks in a broad sense and the baseline of the Ottomans` approach to Turkish-Georgian relations until 1917 have been studied. In the second part of the thesis, the discussion of the status of Georgians with the 1917 Brest-Litowsk Treaty, whose area of domination narrowed in the Caucasus, where the influence of the Russian Tsarism was felt since the 18th century, and the independence of Georgians established after the 1st World War in 1918 have been examined. Additionally, Georgians` relations to Turkish Grand National Assembly after Mustafa Kemal Pasha`s arrival to Samsun in May 19, 1919 to start the Turkish National Independence Movement, and the evolution of these relations into Turkish-Georgian and Turkish-USSR relations after the raid of all Caucasus by USSR in 1921 have been mentioned. In the final part of the thesis, an overall assessment of the relations between Georgia and Turkey in the period of USSR has been conducted.