population and for it to implement "an agrarian system in conformity with its own wishes". Caucasus scholar Charles King referred to that part of the treaty as a "rare instance in international law in which the internal administrative structure of one country has been secured by a treaty with another". Additionally, the treaty guaranteed "free transit through the port of Batum for commodities and all materials destined for, or originating in, Turkey, without customs duties and charges, and with the right for Turkey to utilize the port of Batum without special charges". Armenian-Turkish border The treaty created a new boundary between Turkey and Soviet Armenia, defined by the Akhurian (Arpachay) and Aras Rivers. Turkey obtained the territory of the former Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire, including the cities of Kars, Ardahan, and Olti, Lake Childir and the ruins of Ani. From the former Erivan Governorate, it also obtained the Surmalinsky Uyezd (Surmali), with Mount Ararat, the salt mines of Kulp (Tuzluca), and the city of Igdyr, as well as the Aras corridor, a narrow strip of land between the Aras and Lower Karasu Rivers that had been part of the Erivansky Uyezd. In exchange Turkey agreed to cede to Soviet Armenia the district of Aqbaba, a small area around Lake Arpi inhabited by Karapapak Turks which had been part of the former Kars Oblast. According to the memoirs of Simon Vratsian, the last prime minister of the First Armenian Republic, the Bolsheviks attempted to renegotiate the status of Ani and Kulp and to retain them as part of Soviet Armenia. Ganetsky emphasised the "great historical and scientific value" of Ani for the Armenians and declared Kulp to be an "inseparable part of Transcaucasia". However, Turkey refused to renegotiate the terms agreed upon in the Treaty of Moscow, much to the disappointment of the Soviets. Most of the Armenian territories ceded to Turkey had already been under Turkish military control since the Turkish–Armenian War. The treaty required Turkish troops to withdraw from an area roughly corresponding to the western half of Armenia's present-day Shirak Province, including the city of Aleksandropol (Gyumri). Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Article V of the treaty established the region of Nakhchivan as an autonomous territory under the protection of Azerbaijan. The new autonomous Nakhchivan territory comprised the former Nakhchivan Uyezd, the Sharur part of the Sharur-Daralagezsky Uyezd and the southernmost parts of the Erivansky Uyezd of the