Claims and Demands for the Eastern Black Sea Region During the Paris Peace Conference

Following the end of the First World War, an international conference with broad participation was held in Paris on January 18, 1919 to address the post-war situation and to determine the terms of the peace agreements to be made in this context. The situation of the Ottoman Empire, on the side of the losers of the war, was also discussed at the conference. Like the other losing states of the war, the Ottoman Empire did not have the right to be represented directly at the conference. In such an environment, various demands came to the conference’s agenda on the Ottoman geography. The Eastern Black Sea region was also among the regions on which various claims and demands were expressed at the Paris Peace Conference. Especially Greeks and Armenians made numerous claims about the region and claimed rights in the region. The conflict between the goals of the Armenians, aspiring to establish a great Armenian state, including Trabzon, and the Greeks, aiming to establish an independent Pontus state in the region caused controversy. The events that took place during the Paris Peace Conference clearly demonstrate this situation. Both Armenians and Greeks made a multi-dimensional propaganda during the conference in order to support the allegations and to get the support of the great powers participating in the conference. In this study, the claims and demands of especially Armenians and Greeks towards the Eastern Black Sea Region during the Paris Peace Conference and what happened in this process were revealed.

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