Shatha Khalil *
Turks have never forgotten the Treaty of Lausanne 11, which caused the reduction of the geography of the modern Turkish state, and forcing it to give up large territories that were belonging to it.
So it was not strange to be tackled by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during regular meetings with the Turkish mayors to send historical and political message to outside before the inside, with interest of Turkey to get rid of the effects of the Convention and the restoration of its rights, which were usurped by the Allies and Turkey considers also the texts of the Convention are unfair to its rights?
The modern Turkish Republic was founded according to the Treaty of Lausanne 1923 , which concluded with the victorious Allies in the First World War, they are : the United Kingdom (Britain), Ireland, France, Russia, Italy, Britain , noting Britain has developed a number of unfair and painful conditions to the rights of the Ottoman Empire, as the abolition of the caliphate, and the exile of caliph and his family outside of Turkey, and the confiscation of all his assets, and the declaration of a secular state, and to prevent Turkey from oil exploration and to consider the Bosphorus Strait which links between the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea, and then to the Mediterranean as an international corridor that it is not entitled to Turkey to obtain fees from ships passing through it .
And by 2023 the period of the treaty ends , which has passed a hundred years, and here we understand Erdogan ‘s comments, as Turkey will enter a new era, and will begin oil exploration and drilling a new channel linking between the two seas Black and Marmara as a preparation to start collecting fees from passing ships.
Hence, one can understand some aspects of the ongoing dispute now between Turkey and the West.
The date of the Treaty:
After the end of the First World War in 1918 , the victorious allied powers concluded “Treaty of Sevres” on 10 / August 1920, and shared under which the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and gave most of the non- Turkish nationalities in the Ottoman Empire the independence, but the Turks rejected this treaty and fought a fierce war against allies until they have achieved a great victory over them, especially on Greece during the 1922-1923 war.
Subsequently, the “Lausanne II Conference” was held , which its works lasted three months, and resulted in the signing of the “Treaty of Lausanne” an international peace agreement on July 24 in 1923 in the “Beau Rivage Plus” hotel in Lausanne , southern of Switzerland, the parties of the Treaty include the victorious powers after the First World War (especially Britain, France and Italy), and the Ottoman Empire , who headed its delegation to the Conference , Ismet Inonu, and formally on basis of which the Ottoman Empire was divided , and the Turkish Republic was founded under the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: (1881 – 1938), is the leader of the Turkish National Movement that occurred in the aftermath of the First World War, who defeated the army of Greeks in the Greek – Turkish war in 1922, and after the withdrawal of Allied troops from Turkish territory, he took the city of Ankara as his capital, and founded the Republic of modern Turkey, and abolished the Islamic caliphate, and declared a secular state.
Ismet Inonu: (1884 1973), is the second President of the Republic of Turkey , where he took over the presidency from November 11, 1938 to 22 March 1950 and had served as Turkey ‘s prime minister several times in the following periods from 1923 to 1924 and from 1925 to 1937 and from 1961 he formed ten governments, also he served as Turkey ‘s foreign minister from 1922 to 1924, and the post of Chief of General Staff from 1920 to 1921, and became the leader of the Republican people ‘s Party from 1938 to 1972.
The most important of the contents of the second Treaty of Lausanne:
• the demarcation of the borders of the empire of the Ottoman Caliphate , which Western countries at the time have called it by the “sick man”, which established for the Turkish modern national state led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and its capital Ankara.
• It included 143 articles distributed over 17 documents ranging between the “Agreement”, “charter” ,”declaration” and “annex”, and dealt with the arrangements of conciliation between the parties , signatories to the treaty , and the re – establishment of diplomatic relations among them , “according to the general principles of international law.”
• it has established laws for the use of Turkish water straits and traffic rules and navigation in it at time of war and peace, and stipulates the conditions of residence and trade and the judiciary in Turkey, and to review the status of the Ottoman Empire and the fate of the territories which were subordinate to it before its defeat in the First World War during 1914-1918.
• Abolish the “Treaty of Sevres” and its unfair clauses to the Ottoman Empire, and the foundation of what was known later as the secular “Turkish Republic” after the abolition of the Islamic caliphate system, and the demarcation of Greece and Bulgaria’s borders with the Turkish state , which maintained the annexation of Istanbul and Western Thrace, and included provisions for installment of the debt of Ottoman state.
• Turkey renounced sovereignty over Cyprus, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and the Levant, except cities were located in Syria, such as Urfa, Adana and Gaziantep and Kells and Mrash, and the Ottoman Empire relinquished for its political and financial rights related to Egypt and Sudan as of November 1914.
• provides for the independence of the Republic of Turkey, and the protection of the Greek Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey and the Muslim minority in Greece, and to bind the Turkish government to preserve the lives of all citizens, their rights and their freedom within their territory, and they have equal rights before the law regardless of origin and nationality, language and religion, but most of the Christian population in Turkey and Turkish population in Greece, they had been driven based on the treaty of the exchange of Greek andTurkish population which has been already signed between Greece and Turkey , noting that the Aunanao Istanbul,and Lambros and Tendos (about 270,000 at the time), and the Muslim population in Western Thrace (about 129.120 P 1923) were excluded , paragraph 14 of the Treaty granted Islands kogchi (Lambros) and Bozjaadh (Tendos) “special administrative organization”, a right that was quashed by the Turkish government on February 17, 1926.
• Turkey officially agreed to the loss of Cyprus (which was hired by the British Empire after the Berlin conference in 1878, but remained a legal Ottoman ground until World War I), as well as Egypt and Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian (occupied by British forces under the pretext of “putting out Orabi revolution and restore order” in 1882, but they remained “legally” Ottoman territory until the first World war), which Britain annexed them unilaterally in November 5, 1914.
• leaving the fate of Mosul province to be determined through the League of Nations, as Turkey renounced all claims in respect of the islands of the Dodecanese, which Italy was forced to bring it back to Turkey in accordance with paragraph 2 in Ochi Treaty in 1912, also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne in 1912, as it was signed at the Chateau Doshi in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the wake of the Turkish Italian war (1911-1912), between Turkey and Italy.
• lands to the south of Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula were remained under Turkish control when a truce of Madrus was signed on October 30, 1918, which its texts did not deal with them clearly, but Turkey’s southern border is defined in paragraph 3, it also means that Turkey has abandoned it, and it includes Mutawakkilite Kingdom Yemen, Asir and parts of Hijaz, such as the city of Medina, retained by Turkish troops until January 23, 1919.
•To bind Turkey not to put any restrictions on citizens in the use of any language of their choice whatsoever, whether in relationships or in public meetings or in the fields of religion, commerce, media and publishing, with affirmation of the rights of political and economic sovereignty of the Turkish state and cancel the application of the system of foreign privileges on its territory.
• Romania declared unilaterally to impose its sovereignty over the Ottoman fortress island (Adha castle) in 1919, and strengthened this claim in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, the island was completely forgotten in the course of peace talks at the Berlin conference in 1878, which allowed it to remain Turkish legal ground in the private ownership of the Ottoman Sultan until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
It is a small island located on the Danube River, and today it belongs to the Romanian Serbian territories, most of its inhabitants were Turks, and the island reflects the properties of Ottoman architecture, where many mosques and twisted alleys are there. Some of the island buildings such as the Orthodox Church and some cafes have been built on Vauban style.
• Turkey has abandoned its privileges in Libya as it was designated by paragraph 10 of the Uche Treaty in 1912 (according to paragraph 22 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923).
Turks look to the Convention, as a founding document of the Turkish Republic, as was described by Turkish president, “Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” in his speech to mayors meeting at the presidential compound in the capital Ankara, where President Erdogan comes to talk again about the treaty, calling for a review of the Second Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923 which was followed by the settlement of the borders of modern Turkey after the first World war.
Erdogan said that “opponents of Turkey” forced it to sign the “Treaty of Sevres” in 1920, and the signing of the “Treaty of Lausanne” in 1923, and because of that Turkey has abandoned the islands in the Aegean Sea to Greece, and Erdogan describes the Treaty of Sevres, as the first fork in the Ottoman back, because it forced Turkey to concede vast areas of land which were under its influence.
The Lausanne Treaty; the last leg of the division of the Ottoman legacy.
The treaty recognized to the boundaries of the modern state in Turkey, and the demands of the allies of autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan were reduced in exchange of the Turkish concession of lands to Armenia , and abandoning claims to areas of influence in Turkey, and to impose control over financial transactions in Turkey or the armed forces , and it was announced that the Turkish Straits between the Aegean and the Black Sea to become open to all, unlike what happened in the Convention on Sevres.
In Asia, Turkey abandoned sovereignty over Iraq, Jordan and Palestine, to become under British influence, while Syria and Lebanon to become under the French mandate, and Turkey retained the Anatolia, and Armenia became an independent republic under international guarantees.
In Europe, Turkey ceded parts of Eastern Thrace and some of the islands of Aegean Sea to Greece ,and the Dodecanese and Rhodes to Italy, retaining Constantinople and its outskirts , including the area of strait of “Dardanelles and the Bosphorus”, which was neutralized and internationalized , and allies got more effective control over the Turkish economy with the surrender rights.
The second Treaty of Lausanne led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey as the successor of the Ottoman Empire.
However, with the end of the treaty it is believed that the “circulating of the message” caused political tension between Turkey and some EU countries, after a hundred years after the signing.
The letter also indicates that it will be possible for Turkey after the expiration of the treaty, to make oil exploration, and joins the list of oil – producing countries, as well as the collection of fees from ships passing through the Bosphorus Strait, and digging a new channel linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, which have been banned on Turkey according to the Lausanne Treaty; in preparation for the start of the collection of fees from passing ships.
We can understand some aspects of the ongoing differences between Turkey and the West that Western countries fear with the end of the treaty , Turkey will find the justification to its intervention in Mosul, which has been belonged to Turkey over four centuries until it lost it in the First World War.
The Turkish Professor specialist in international relations Mustafa Sidqi Bilgin said: When Turkey abandoned Mosul to Iraq, it was conditional on it not to change its borders or its status at the time, which has changed over the past decades. ”
The little history mentions that the city of Mosul, subjected to the control of the Ottoman in 1534 during the reign of Suleiman al-Kanoni, until the end of the First World War, as it became the an ambition for Western countries, especially after the discovery of oil, so it was taken over by France and Britain, and with the signing of Turkey on the Treaty of Lausanne and the Convention Ankara, Ankara abandoned Mosul after reducing the land area.
Here, it is possible to make the balance between the Treaties of Lausanne II, and the “Treaty of Nanking,” which China ceded the Hong Kong to the Britain, after the first Opium War by signing Tchenba agreement, which seeks to end the first Anglo-Chinese conflict.
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its involvement in economic and political affairs of the country, and was one of the most important goals of Britain ‘s war is the occupation of Hong Kong island which is populated next to the coast of southeast China.
The new British colony (Hong Kong Island) saw a prosperity, as it has become a commercial center between the East and West and commercial Gate and distribution center for southern China, and in 1898, Britain got 99 additional years of rule over Hong Kong under the Second Beijing agreement.
In September 1984, after years of negotiations, the British and the Chinese have signed a formal agreement approving the re – island to China in 1997 , in exchange for China ‘s pledge to maintain the capitalist system of Hong Kong, and in the first of July 1997 , Hong Kong formally was handed over to China at a ceremony attended by a number of senior Chinese and British figures, Chief Executive of the new Hong Kong government Tung Chee Hwa , set a policy based on the concept of “one country, two systems”, which maintains the role of Hong Kong as a major capitalist Center in Asia.
The second Lausanne today is on the table of discussion, as fears began to float on the surface with the expiration of the period, and linking this with coup attempt on Erdogan in mid – 2016, and with the battle of al-Riqqa and Mosul.
The question is: whether Turkey will return after the expiration of the “Treaty of Lausanne 2” , a modern Ottoman empire in the region? Will the geopolitical and economic map change , and the world is entering a new phase of renovation of Ottoman legacy?
And how the current great powers to deal with Turkish demands? Will we see wars before 2023, and who will lead that change
About linking the close end of the convention to the political tension between Turkey and some European Union countries, observers wonder: “Is there an article in International law that provides for the validity of International treaties for 100 years only?”, Noting that “Germany canceled the treaty in the thirties 20 years after signing it, Is it possible for Turkey to do so?
Rawbet Center for Research and Strategic Studies