The Time of Liberation 1919-1923 – Part 2

Week 4-5

The Turkish Delegation at the Lausanne Negotiations (20.11.1922-24.07.1923)

2 vital directives 1) Armenian State in the Eastern

Anatolia. 2) Capitulations (trade

concessions, legal issues)

1) Exploiting clashing interests of the Allied Powers.

2) Utilizing Soviet Russian factor

Ankara’s Main Strategy at Laussaune

Territorial negotiations at Lausanne

1) Territory and Borders 2) Convention on the Turkish Straits3) Trade - Abolition of capitulations4) Economic and Fiscal Issues – Turkey’s portion of

Ottoman debts would be paid by insalltment. 5) Disputes with Greece (population exchange,

compensation, the Greek Patriarchate in Istanbul)

6) Minority Regime

The Treaty of Lausanne: 6 Main Issues

• 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 with France) settled the boundaries of the latter.

• Control over Mosul in Iraq (to be determined of League of Nations) and Alexandretta (Hatay) in Syria remained with the British and French respectively.

• Plans for an independent Armenia and an autonomous Kurdistan were abandoned.

• Article 3: Turkey officially ceded the territories to the south of Syria and Iraq on the Arabian Peninsula. They were held by Turkish forces until 23 January 1919.

The Treaty of Lausanne:Territory and Borders (1)

Borders of Turkey set by the Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923)

The Treaty of Lausanne:Convention on the Turkish Straits (2)

Demilitarised the Dardanelles and opened the Straits to unrestricted civilian and military traffic, under the supervision of the International Straits Commission of the League of Nations.

Art. 28: Each of the High Contracting Parties hereby accepts, in so far as it is concerned, the complete abolition of the Capitulations in Turkey in every respect

3) Capitulations

4) Economic and Fiscal Issues

1)Population exchange: The simultaneous expulsion of Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece and of Muslims from Greece to Turkey. Involved approximately 2 million people, around 1.5 million Anatolian Greeks – with exception of the ones in Istanbul- and 500,000 Muslims – with expections of the ones in the Western Thrace- in Greece. 2)Turkish compensation demand: No compensation but Karaağaç,Edirne to Turkish side. 3) The Greek Patriarchate: Remained in Istanbul.

The Treaty of Lausanne: Disputes with Greece (5)

6)Minority Regime (Art.37-45)Only the non-Muslim communities are recognized as minorities and are granted the right to use their own language, the right of political and civic equality, the right to establish religious, educational, and social welfare institutions, and the right to freedom of religion, travel, and migration.

• The international recognition of the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire.

• The Convention on the Turkish Straits was replaced with the Montreux Convention on the straits regime in 1936.

• Hatay Province, in 1938, gained its independence as the Hatay State from the French Syria, which later joined Turkey after a referendum in 1939.

Aftermath of the Treaty of Lausanne

The Republic of Turkey becomes indepedendent on 29 October 1923