Page:Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin - Two Years of Foreign Policy (1920).pdf/24

 furnish a part of the naphtha to Germany. We were to get a part of the coal from the Donetz. We declared that we recognized, in view of the de facto situation, the end of the sovereignty of Russia in Esthonia. We were assured an outlet to the sea through Reval, Riga and Windau.

Strange relations were formed during this period with Turkey. Germany pretended to be powerless to control Turkey. With the material in our possession we cannot tell to what degree certain elements in the German Government had supported Turkey's campaign on Baku, but the fact remains that the capture of Baku by the Turks violated Germany's treaty with us, which provided that we furnish naphtha to Germany, for which we were to receive compensation. During the gradual advance of Nuri Pasha's army toward Baku the German Government replied to all the protests of Comrade Yoffe by presenting to him telegrams from the German general Kress, from Tiflis, and from the Turkish Government, which denied the very fact of a Turkish campaign. The appearance of the British in Baku provided the Turks with a convenient pretext for a final attack on this city. But even then the Turks declared that the army in Baku was not theirs, alleging that these troops belonged to the local Mussulman rebels. After the capture of Baku by the Turks on September 16, we demanded its immediate evacuation. Talaat Pasha in his negotiations with Comrade Yoffe in Berlin agreed to everything, except the most essential. We demanded the surrender of Baku directly to our troops, since without this condition the Turks could easily declare that they had evacuated Baku, but that the city was occupied by Mussulman bands which were not under their control. But to this demand that the city be surrendered directly to us the Turkish Government did not agree. Accordingly, on September 20 we notified Turkey that we considered the Brest