268 A Short History of the Middle East
for a new treaty of alliance, they were informed that this was condi-
tional on the establishment of a new regime for the Straits, and also
on the return to Russia of the provinces of Kars and Ardahan,
which she had voluntarily restored to Turkey in 1921; apparently
she now hoped to find oil there. At his speech at Fulton (Missouri)
in March 1946 Mr. Churchill disclosed that at the Potsdam Con-
ference the U.S.A. and Britain offered Russia a joint guarantee of
the complete freedom of the Straits in peace and war; 'but we
were told that this was not enough. Russia must have a fortress in-
side the Straits from which she could dominate Istanbul'. In the
months that followed, Armenians, both within the Soviet Re-
public of Armenia and in other parts of the world, were encouraged
to make propaganda for the return to Russia of Kars and Ardahan.
In December 1945 the Soviet press and radio gave wide publicity to
the claim put forward by Georgian professors to a coastal belt of
north-eastern Turkey some 180 miles in length, on the grounds
that this bad been Georgian territory 2,000 years ago. The Soviet
propaganda contained sinister hints that she desired to see in
Turkey a 'government inspiring greater confidence* than the exist-
ing one; and any signs of a rapprochement between Turkey and the
Arab League were strongly denounced. In August 1946 the Soviet
government made positive proposals for the revision of the Mon-
treux Convention, the essential point being that 'The Soviet
Union and Turkey, as the Powers most interested in and cap-
able of ensuring the freedom of merchant shipping in the Straits,
should organize by joint means the defence of the Straits in order
to prevent their use by other states for purposes hostile to Black Sea
Powers.5 Next month, to the accompaniment of propaganda
charges that the Turks had allowed Britain to establish military
bases in the neighbourhood of the Straits, the Russians delivered a
second Note, rejecting the Turkish proposal of an international
conference of the signatories of the Montreux Convention and the
U.S.A., and warning them that any attempt to bring in the U.S.A.
or Britain, would, of course, run directly contrary to the security
interests of the Black Sea Powers. Towards the end of November
the Communist bands which had for some months been harassing
Northern Greece, with the connivance of the Russian satellite-
states in the Balkans, began to operate close to the Turkish frontier.
Turkish garrisons were accordingly strengthened, and a home-
guard organized in every village in the frontier district. In mid-