refused to give up the territories. Turkey was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the Second World War. Soviet territorial claims to Turkey were supported by the Armenian Catholicos George VI and by all shades of the Armenian diaspora, including the anti-Soviet Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The Soviet government also encouraged Armenians abroad to repatriate to Soviet Armenia to support its claims. The British and the Americans opposed the Soviet territorial claims against Turkey. As the Cold War began, the American government saw the claims as part of an "expansionist drive by a Communist empire" and viewed them as reminiscent of Nazi irredentist designs over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The US State Department was concerned about the strategic military significance of the Kars Plateau to the Soviets. They concluded that their earlier support for Armenia since President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) had expired since the loss of Armenian independence. The Soviet Union also requested a revision of the Montreux Convention and a military base on the Turkish straits. The State Department advised US President Harry Truman to support Turkey and to oppose the Soviet demands, which he did. Turkey joined the anti-Soviet NATO military alliance in 1952. Following the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet government renounced its territorial claims on Turkey as part of an effort to promote friendly relations with the Middle Eastern country and its alliance partner, the United States. The Soviet Union continued to honor the terms of the treaty until its dissolution in 1991. However, according to Christopher J. Walker, Moscow revisited the treaty in 1968, when it attempted to negotiate a border adjustment with Turkey in which the ruins of Ani would be transferred to Soviet Armenia in exchange for two Azerbaijani villages in the area of Mount Akbaba. However, according to Walker, nothing resulted from these talks. History since 1991 Position of Armenia After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet governments of Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan accepted the Treaty of Kars. Armenia's position is different because of the absence of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia. In December 2006, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said that Armenia accepts the treaty as the legal successor to the Armenian SSR but noted that Turkey did not adhere to the terms of the treaty. Specifically, Article XVII of the treaty called for the