Peace For Turkey - The Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of
Lausanne was a
peace treaty signed in
Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923. It officially ended the state of war that had existed between
Turkey and the
Allied British Empire,
French Republic,
Kingdom of Italy,
Empire of Japan,
Kingdom of Greece,
Kingdom of Romania, and
Serb-Croat-Slovene State since the onset of
World War I. It was the result of a second attempt at peace after the failed
Treaty of Sèvres, which was signed by all previous parties but later rejected by the
Turkish national movement who fought against the previous terms and significant loss of Anatolian territory. The Treaty of Lausanne ended the conflict and defined the borders of the modern
Turkish state except for its border with
Iraq. In the treaty, Turkey gave up all claims to the remainder of the
Ottoman Empire and in return the
Allies recognized Turkish sovereignty within its new borders.
The treaty was ratified by Turkey on 23
August 1923,
Greece on 25 August 1923,
Italy on 12
March 1924,
Japan on 15 May 1924,
Great Britain on 16 July 1924. The treaty came into force on 6
August 1924, when the instruments of ratification had been officially deposited in
Paris.
After the destruction of the
Greek forces in
Asia Minor and the expulsion of the
Ottoman sultan by the
Turkish army under the command of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Ankara-based government of the Turkish national movement rejected the Treaty of Sèvres previously signed by the Ottoman Empire.
Negotiations were undertaken during the
Conference of Lausanne, where
İsmet İnönü was the chief negotiator for Turkey.
Lord Curzon, the
British Foreign Secretary of that time, was the chief negotiator for the Allies, while
Eleftherios Venizelos negotiated on behalf of Greece. The negotiations took many months. On
20 November 1922, the peace conference was opened and after strenuous debate was interrupted by Turkish protest on
4 February 1923. After reopening on 23 April, and following more protests by the
Turks and tense debates, the treaty was signed on 24 July as a result of eight months of arduous negotiation.
The Allied delegation included negotiators such as
U.S. Admiral Mark L. Bristol, who served as the
United States High Commissioner and championed Turkish efforts
The treaty was composed of
143 articles with major sections including:
Convention on the
Turkish Straits
Trade (abolition of capitulations)
Agreements
Binding letters.
The treaty provided for the independence of the
Republic of Turkey but also for the protection of the
Greek Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey and the
Muslim minority in Greece. However, most of the
Christian population of Turkey and the
Turkish population of Greece had already been deported under the earlier Convention Concerning the
Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations signed by Greece and Turkey. Only the
Greeks of
Constantinople,
Imbros and Tenedos were excluded (about 270,
000 at that time), and the
Muslim population of
Western Thrace (about 129,
120 in 1923.)
Article 14 of the treaty granted the islands of
Gökçeada (Imbros) and
Bozcaada (
Tenedos) "special administrative organisation", a right that was revoked by the
Turkish government on
17 February 1926. Turkey also formally accepted the loss of
Cyprus (which was leased to the British Empire following the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, but de jure remained an Ottoman territory until World War I) as well as
Egypt and
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (which were occupied by
British forces with the pretext of "putting down the
Urabi Revolt and restoring order" in
1882, but de jure remained Ottoman territories until World War I) to the British Empire, which had unilaterally annexed them on
5 November 1914. The fate of the province of
Mosul was left to be determined through the
League of Nations. Turkey also renounced all claims on the
Dodecanese Islands, which Italy was obliged to return to Turkey according to
Article 2 of the
Treaty of Ouchy in 1912 - also known as the
First Treaty of Lausanne (1912), as it was signed at the
Château d'Ouchy in Lausanne, Switzerland - following the
Italo-Turkish War (1911--1912).
The treaty delimited the boundaries of Greece,
Bulgaria, and Turkey; formally ceded all Turkish claims on the Dodecanese Islands (
Article 15); Cyprus (
Article 20); Egypt and
Sudan (Article 17);
Syria and Iraq (
Article 3); and (along with the
Treaty of Ankara) settled the boundaries of the latter two nations.
The territories to the south of Syria and Iraq on the
Arabian Peninsula which still remained under Turkish control when the
Armistice of Mudros was signed on
30 October 1918 were not explicitly identified in the text of the treaty. However, the definition of Turkey's southern border in Article 3 also meant that Turkey officially ceded them. These territories included
Yemen,
Asir and parts of Hejaz like the city of
Medina. They were held by Turkish forces until
23 January 1919.