Treaty of Lausanne | |
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![]() Borders of Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne
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Signed - location |
1923 July 24 Lausanne, Switzerland |
Signatories | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Depositary | French Republic |
The Treaty of Lausanne (July 24, 1923) was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by annulment of the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) that was signed by the Istanbul-based Ottoman government; as the consequence of the Turkish War of Independence between the Allies of World War I and the Ankara-based Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkish national movement) led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The treaty also led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey as the successor state of the defunct Ottoman Empire.[1]
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After the expulsion of the Allied forces 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 (1920) that was signed by the Istanbul-based Ottoman government.
Negotiations were undertaken during the Conference of Lausanne at which İsmet İnönü was the chief negotiator for Turkey. Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary of that time, was the chief negotiator of the Allies, while Eleftherios Venizelos negotiated on behalf of Greece. The negotiations took many months. On November 20 1922, the peace conference was opened, and after strenuous debate, was interrupted by Turkish protest on February 4 1923. After reopening again on April 23, and following more protests by the Turks and tense debates, the treaty was signed on July 24 as a result of eight months of arduous negotiation. The delegation on behalf of the Allies included negotiators such as the 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:[2]
The treaty provided for the independence of the Republic of Turkey but also for the protection of the ethnic Greek minority in Turkey and the mainly ethnically Turkish Muslim minority in Greece. However, most of the Greek population of Turkey and the Turkish population of Greece had already been deported under the earlier Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey agreement signed by Greece and Turkey. Only the Greeks of Istanbul, Imbros and Tenedos were excluded (about 270,000 in Istanbul alone at that time),[3] and the Muslim population of Western Thrace (about 86,000[4] in 1922). Article 14 of the treaty granted the islands of Imbros and Tenedos "special administrative organisation", a right that was revoked by the Turkish government on February 17, 1926. The Republic of Turkey also formally accepted the loss of Cyprus (which was "rented" 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 Sudan (which were occupied by British forces with the pretext of "establishing order" in 1882, but de jure remained Ottoman territories until World War I) to the British Empire. 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 back to Turkey according to the Treaty of Ouchy in 1912 (also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne (1912), as it was signed at the Ouchy Castle in Lausanne, Switzerland) following the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912).[5]
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); Iraq and Syria (Article 3); and (along with the Treaty of Ankara) settled the boundaries of the latter two nations.[6] Turkey also renounced its priviliges in Libya which were defined by Article 10 of the Treaty of Ouchy in 1912 (per Article 22 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923).[7]
Among many agreements, there was a separate agreement with the United States: the Chester concession. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty and consequently Turkey annulled the concession.[2]
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