Treaty of Lausanne

For the First Treaty of Lausanne after the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, see Italo-Turkish War#The 1912 Treaty of Lausanne.
Treaty of Lausanne
Turkey-Greece-Bulgaria on Treaty of Lausanne.png
Borders of Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne
Signed
Location		 July 1923
Lausanne, Switzerland
Signatories  United Kingdom
France France
Italy Italy
 Japan
Greece Greece
Romania Romania
 Yugoslavia
 Turkey
Depositary French Republic

The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 24, 1923, 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.[1] The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on February 11, 1924, by the Turkish government on March 31, 1924, and by the governments of Great Britain, Italy and Japan on August 6, 1924. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on September 5, 1924.[2]

The treaty was 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.[3]

Contents

Background

See also: Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Independence War
Borders of Turkey according to the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) which was annulled and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) as a consequence of the Turkish War of Independence led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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 that was signed by the İstanbul-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 for 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.[4] 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.[3] Turkey also renounced its privileges 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).[3] As another result of that treaty, the area that is predominantly populated by Kurdish, and historically called Kurdistan, was divided between the newly established countries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the previous Iranian state.

Stipulations

The treaty was composed of 143 articles with major sections including:[5]

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 mainly ethnically Turkish Muslim minority in Greece. However, most of the Christian population of Turkey and the Muslim 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 İstanbul, Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos) were excluded (about 270,000 at that time),[6] and the Turkish population of Western Thrace (about 129,120[7] in 1923. Article 14 of the treaty granted the islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada "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 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 Sudan (which were occupied by British forces with the pretext of "establishing order" in 1882) 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 Article 2 of 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).[8]

Borders

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.[3] Turkey also renounced its privileges 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).[3] As another result of that treaty, the area that is predominantly populated by Kurdish, and historically called Kurdistan, was divided between the newly established countries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the previous Iranian state.

Agreements

Among many agreements, there was a separate agreement with the United States: the Chester concession. The United States Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and consequently Turkey annulled the concession.[5]

Aftermath

The Treaty of Lausanne led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey as the successor state of the defunct Ottoman Empire.[3] The Convention on the Turkish Straits lasted only thirteen years and was replaced with the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits in 1936. The customs limitations in the treaty were shortly reworked.

Hatay Province remained a part of the French Mandate of Syria according to the Treaty of Lausanne but in 1938 gained its independence as the Hatay State, which later joined Turkey with a referendum in 1939. Syria does not recognize the addition of Hatay Province to Turkey and continues to show it as a part of Syria on its maps.

Political amnesty was applied. 150 personae non gratae of Turkey (descendants of the Ottoman dynasty) slowly acquired citizenship - the last one was in 1974.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Treaty_of_Lausanne ;
    ARTICLE 91
     All grants of patents and registrations of trade-marks, as well as all registrations of transfers or assignments of patents or trade marks which have been duly made since the 30th October, 1918, by the Imperial Ottoman Government at Istanbul or elsewhere..
  2. ↑ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 28, pp. 12-113.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Full text of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)
  4. ↑ Morgenthau, Henry, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story,(Detroit: Wayne State University, 2003), 303.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mango, Andrew (2002). Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. Overlook Press. pp. 388. ISBN 158567334X. 
  6. ↑ The Greek minority of Turkey - Hellenic Resources Network
  7. ↑ Öksüz 2004, 255
  8. ↑ Treaty of Ouchy (1912), also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne

External links