Wilsonian Armenia

Wilsonian Armenia (Armenian: Վիլսոնյան Հայաստան, romanized: Vilsonyan Hayastan) was the unimplemented boundary configuration of the First Republic of Armenia in the Treaty of Sèvres, as drawn by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Department of State. The Treaty of Sèvres was a peace treaty that had been drafted and signed between the Western Allied Powers and the defeated government of the Ottoman Empire in August 1920, but it was never ratified and was subsequently superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne. The proposed boundaries of Wilsonian Armenia incorporated Armenian-populated sections of Western Armenia — specifically the Ottoman vilayets of Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, and Trabzon. The inclusion of portions of Trabzon Vilayet was intended to provide the First Republic of Armenia with access to the Black Sea via the port of Trabzon. A proposed Republic of Pontus was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but the Greek government of Eleftherios Venizelos feared the precarious position of such a state, so a portion of it was instead included in the proposed state of Wilsonian Armenia.

The United States Senate rejected the mandate for Armenia in 1920. The outbreak of the Turkish War of Independence led to the Ottoman Empire not ratifying the Treaty of Sèvres. A few months later, Turkey invaded Armenia. Under the Treaty of Alexandropol on November 2, 1920, Armenia forfeited all claims to Western Armenia which had been promised under the Treaty of Sevres. Among other territory forfeited included Kars which was transferred to Turkey and Nakhchivan which was transferred to Azerbaijan. These border changes were ratified by the Treaty of Kars and the Treaty of Moscow (1921) which were negotiated between Soviet Russia and Turkey following the Sovietization of the First Republic of Armenia.

Today Armenians — both in the diaspora and indigenous to modern Turkey — have pursued political representation within Western Armenia or reunification with the Republic of Armenia, with a congress of genocide survivors' descendants active in the diaspora. In 2020, the three traditional Armenian political parties—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks), Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchaks) and the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavars)—issued a joint statement on the centenary of the Sèvres Treaty, stating that it is the only internationally legal document that demarcates the border between Armenia and Turkey.