ABOUT WILSON'S ARMENIA

For an arbitral award to be valid it must meet the following criteria: (1) the arbitrators must not have been subjected to any undue external influence, such as coercion, bribery or corruption; (2) the production of proofs must have been free from fraud, and the proofs must have been free from essential errors; (3) the compromise (the agreement between at least two parties to submit a dispute to international arbitration for a binding resolution) must have been valid; and (4) the arbitrators must not have exceeded their powers. 

1. By the Article 89 of the Treaty of Sevres, President Woodrow Wilson was chosen as the arbitrator. President Wilson's political or personal integrity had never been called into question, nor had he ever been blamed for taking actions under external influence, including with regards to this arbitration. It is apparent and doubtless that the arbitrator had not been subjected to undue influence, coercion, bribery or corruption.

2. All the experts in the task group were knowledgeable, experienced and impartial professionals. After over two months of intensive and thorough work, the task group produced a Full Report of the Committee upon the Arbitration of the Boundary between Turkey and Armenia, which was sent to the War Department and, following seven weeks of extensive review, to the White House for President Wilson’s signature. The signed Award was officially delivered to the US Embassy in Paris on December 6, 1920. It is clear that the State Department and the Department of War were fully capable of identifying any fraud or essential error in the production of proofs, if any had existed. 

3. There are several factors that prove the validity of a compromise (agreement): (a) being duly incorporated in a treaty; (b) being duly negotiated; and (c) being signed by an authorized representative of a lawful government. 

a. The Treaty of Sevres (August 10, 1920) contained a special arbitration clause, Article 89, wherein Armenia and Turkey, as well as the other High Contracting Parties had consented to submit to the arbitration of the President of the United States the determination of the question of frontier to be fixed between Turkey and Armenia, and to be bound by the award.

b. The Turkish Government was accorded a month to submit in writing any observations or objections it might have had relative to the treaty. The first set of Turkish observations (following an extension) was submitted on June 25, 1920. On July 7th, the second Turkish memorandum was received, based on which the Supreme Council authorized some minor revisions without altering the substance. The Supreme Counsil based the decision not to change the substance on the following: “During the past twenty years Armenians have been massacred under conditions of unexampled barbarity, and during the war the record of the Turkish Government in massacre, in deportation and in maltreatment of prisoners of war immeasurably exceeded even its own previous record (...) Not only has the Turkish government failed to protect its subjects of other races from pillage, outrage and murder, but there is abundant evidence that it has been responsible for directing and organizing savagery against people to whom it owed protection.” 

c. On July 22, 1920, Sultan Mehmed VI, the constitutional head of the state of Ottoman Empire (Turkey), convened a Crown Council to discuss signing the Treaty, which was attended by fifty prominent Turkish political and military figures. At the vote, all but one of these figures voted for signing the Treaty, and so it was signed.

Therefore, the compromise was valid.

4. The Article 89 of the Sevres Treaty asked the arbitrator to do the following by the means of the Arbitration: (1) to fix the frontier between Turkey and Armenia in the Vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis; (2) to provide access for Armenia to sea; and (3) to prescribe stipulations for the demilitarization of Turkish territory adjacent to the Turkish-Armenian frontier. President Wilson strictly adhered to this assignment, not once wavering from course. For example, there was strong pressure on him by some missionary groups to include the town of Kharput and its vicinities in the future Republic of Armenia, but Wilson refused as to not exceed his powers.