page_title: Georgia–Persia relations
section_title: Russo-Persian Wars and irrevocable cessions
hierarchical_section_title: Georgia–Persia relations / Qajar period / Russo-Persian Wars and irrevocable cessions
caption_attribution_description: English: Treaty of Gulistan עברית: הסכם גוליסטן Azərbaycanca: Gülüstan müqaviləsi Հայերեն: Գյուլիստանի պայմանագիր Русский: Гюлистанский мирный договор Deutsch: Friede von Gulistan Français&#160;: Traité de Golestan فارسی: عهدنامه گلستان Norsk bokmål: Gulistan-traktaten Tag: Persia-Russia bodreds before and after the en:Treaty of Gulistan
context_page_description: Persia and Georgia have had relations for thousands of years. Eastern and Southern Georgia had been under intermittent Persian suzerainty for many centuries up to the early course of the 19th century, while western Georgia had been under its suzerainty for much shorter periods of time throughout history. Georgia especially rose to importance from the time of the Persian Safavids.
  Due to these millennia long intertwined relations, there has been a lot of political, cultural and ethnic exchange between the two nations for thousands of years. In the words of Keith Hitchins / Encyclopædia Iranica:
  Between the Achaemenid era and the beginning of the 19th century, Persia played a significant and at times decisive role in the history of the Georgian people. The Persian presence helped to shape political institutions, modify social structure and land holding, and enrich literature and culture. Persians also acted as a counterweight to other powerful forces in the region, notably the Romans, the Ottoman Turks, and the Russians.
context_section_description: In 1797, Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in Shusha, after which the Iranian grip over Georgia softened. A year later, Erekle II had died as well, leaving the country in total muddle and confusion. A year later, the Russian troops took advantage of the situation and marched into Tbilisi. This, and the official annexation of Georgia in 1801, would form the direct reason for the two Russo-Persian Wars of the 19th century. The first war, the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) directly started over consolidation of Irano-Russian rule over Georgia. The Iranian shah, like all kings before him, viewed Georgia as an unmistakable and integral part of the Iranian domains, no different than the mainland provinces of Gilan or Fars for example. Eastern Georgia furthermore had been under intermittent Iranian rule 1555. The annexation of Georgia was thus annexation of Iranian land, which made it inevitable that the new Iranian shah, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, would fight the two 19th-century wars with Russia to keep its Iranian domains safe. 
  The very first war however, the 1804-1813 war, turned out in a huge failure. Despite Iranian successes in the earlier stages of the war, the successful late Russian campaigns, notably those at Aslanduz and Lankaran, made Iran forcefully sue for peace. The Treaty of Gulistan that was concluded in 1813, forced Qajar Iran to irrevocably cede Georgia, as well as Dagestan and most of modern-day Azerbaijan to Imperial Russia, amongst the other terms of the treaty.
  The next bout of hostilities, due to the huge dissatisfaction with the turn of events that forced Iran to cede swaths of its lands, culminated in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828). Despite a successful Iranian offensive in the first year, it eventually turned out in an even worse defeat; the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay forced Iran to irrevocably cede all of modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of the Azerbaijani Republic that were still in Iranian hands. By 1828, Iran was stripped of all its territories in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus including Georgia, which all had made part of the concept of Iran for three centuries.
  As the millennia old links with Iran and the Caucasus could only be severed by a superior force from outside, it would be Russia that cut these ties. From 1813 and on, Georgia entered a Russian-dominated sphere until 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
caption: Map showing Irans's northwestern borders in the 19th century, comprising nowadays Eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, prior to being ceded to Imperial Russia per the two Russo-Persian Wars of the 19th century.
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