The Tehran Protocol

December 21, 1911

The Persian and Ottoman Governments, inspired by a common desire to avoid henceforward any subjects of controversy in respect of their common frontiers, having instructed the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Turkish Ambassador at Tehran, respectively, to establish the bases of negotiations and the procedure to be followed for the delimitation of the said frontiers, the undersigned, after discussion, have agreed on the following points:
I. A Commission consisting of an equal number of delegates of either Party shall meet as early as possible at Constantinople.
II. The delegates of the two Governments, furnished with all the documents and evidence in support of their claims, shall be instructed to establish the boundary line separating the two countries in a spirit of sincere impartiality; after which a technical commission shall have merely to apply the definite delimitation on the spot, on the basis laid down by the former commission.
III. The work of the Joint Commission, which will meet at Constantinople, shall be based on the clauses of the treaty known as the Treaty of Erzerum, concluded in 1847.
IV. Should the delegates of the two Parties fail to agree on the interpretation and application of certain clauses of that treaty, it is agreed that, at the end of a period of six months of negotiation, in order completely to settle the question of the delimitation of the frontiers, all the points on which any divergence exists shall be submitted together to the Court of Arbitration at The Hague, in order that the entire question may thus be definitely settled.
V. It is understood that neither of the two Parties may adduce the military occupation of the territories in dispute as a legal argument.
Done in duplicate and exchanged in original between the undersigned acting on behalf of their Governments.
The Imperial Ottoman Embassy, Tehran, 21 December 1911
(signed) Wossughed-Dowleh (signed) H. Hassib.

al-Izzi, 206-207