During the negotiations, which began shortly after Bekir Sami's arrival on July 19, Chicherin and Karakhan readily offered Soviet military and financial aid and concurred that a land bridge between Russia and Turkey should be created quickly. Karakhan revealed that the Eleventh Red Army was already under orders to occupy the Karabakh-Nakhichevan corridor. The Soviet officials nonetheless urged Ankara government to resolve the Armenian Question, which had roused worldwide concern, by assenting to a frontier rectification that would give the Armenians the districts of Van, Bitlis, and Moush and allow Turkey to occupy the strategic mountain passes near Sarighamish. A mixed commission could determine the exact boundaries and facilitate the work of repatriation and any exchanges of population. Adamantly refusing to make territorial concessions for promises of material assistance, Bekir Sami agreed only to apprize his government of Chicherin's suggestions. He that maintained the Soviet aid should be dispatched immediately as a sign of good faith and that a preliminary treaty on non-territorial issues should be concluded. This position was supported by Stalin, who was unsympathetic toward the Armenian case, and by Lenin, whose main concerns at that time were the difficulties on the Crimean and Polish fronts and the broader question of relations with the West.
Hence, on August 24, two weeks after the sultan's plenipotentiaries in Paris had signed the Treaty of Sevres, which required Turkey to recognise the independence Armenia and to cede to it the eastern border provinces, a draft Soviet-Turkish Nationalist accord was initialled in Moscow. All previous treaties between Russia and Turkey were declared null and void, Russia would decline to recognise any international act not ratified by Ankara government, and both sides were to make every effort to open an unobstructed avenue between the two countries for the flow of men and material. Other provisions related to trade and transit, the status of nationals of one country living in the other, and future diplomatic relations. Separate protocols on Soviet military and economic aid were also prepared. Yusuf Kemal (Tengirshenk), a member of the Turkish delegation, carried the treaty, together with the first of promised 5 million gold roubles, to Trabizond. From that Black Sea port, he wired the terms to Ankara on September 18. in their reports to Mustafa Kemal, Bekir Sami and Yusuf Kemal drew attention to the reserved attitude of Chicherin and Karakhan but added that Lenin was sympathetic and had given the impression that Russia would soon assume a more aggressive role in the Caucasus. 98 Two days after receiving the terms of the draft treaty, Mustafa Kemal authorised General Gharabekir to begin the offensive against Armenia. This was the theatre chosen by the Nationalist leaders to impress upon the world their rejection of the Treaty of Sèvres.
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