Treaty of Gulistan

Treaty of Gulistan

Treaty of Peace between Imperial Russia and Persian Empire
Northwestern Iran's borders before and after the treaty
Location	Gulistan
Effective	24 October 1813
Signatories	Nikolai Rtischev Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi

The Treaty of Gulistan (Russian: Гюлистанский договор; Persian: عهدنامه گلستان‎‎) was a peace treaty concluded between Imperial Russia and Persia (modern day Iran) on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (in modern-day Goranboy Rayon of Azerbaijan) as a result of the first full-scale Russo-Persian War, lasting from 1804 to 1813. The peace negotiations were precipitated by Lankaran's fall to Gen. Pyotr Kotlyarevsky on 1 January 1813.

The treaty confirmed the ceding and inclusion of what is today Daghestan, Georgia, most of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and parts of northern Armenia from Iran into the Russian Empire.

The text was prepared by the British diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley who served as the mediator and wielded great influence at the Persian court. It was signed by Nikolai Rtischev from the Russian side and Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi from the Persian side.

The result of the treaty was that it forcefully ceded the bulk of Iran's Caucasian territories, while it also directly contributed to the outbreak of the next war of the 19th century, namely the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828). By the treaty of Treaty of Turkmenchay that came out of the 1826-1828 war, the last Caucasian territories were stripped off from Iran, comprising modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of contemporary Azerbaijan that remained in Iranian hands. By 1828, Iran had lost, through the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, all its aforementioned integral territories in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. The area to the North of the river Aras, amongst which the territory of the contemporary nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan were Iranian territory until they were occupied by Russia in the course of the 19th century.