The Treaty of Gulistan (; ) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now in the Goranboy District of Azerbaijan) as a result of the first full-scale Russo-Persian War (1804 to 1813). The peace negotiations were precipitated by the successful storming of Lankaran by General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky on 1 January 1813. It was the first of the series of treaties (the last being the Akhal Treaty) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede the territories that formerly were part of Iran. The treaty confirmed the ceding and inclusion of what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, most of the Republic of Azerbaijan and parts of northern Armenia from Iran into the Russian Empire. The text was prepared by the British diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley, who served as a mediator and wielded a significant degree of influence in the Persian court. It was signed by Nikolai Rtischev for Russia and Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi for Persia. The result of the treaty was the transfer of the bulk of Iran's Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire. The treaty also directly contributed to the outbreak of the next war of the 19th century: the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), in which the Iranian forces were defeated once more. In the following Treaty of Turkmenchay, Qajar Iran lost possession of its last remaining Caucasian territories, comprising modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of modern-day Azerbaijan. By 1828, Iran had lost by both treaties all of those integral territories in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. The area north of the Aras River, including the territory of the contemporary nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan, were part of Iran until they were occupied by Russia during the 19th century. As a further direct result and consequence of the Treaty of Gulistan in combination with the 1828 Treaty Turkmenchay, the formerly Iranian territories came under the Russian, and later the Soviet control for approximately 180 years, and Dagestan remains a constituent republic within the Russian Federation to this day. Comprising most of the territory ceded in Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, three separate nations would gain independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Background In 1801, the Russian Empire had sworn in a new tsar, Alexander I, who was eager