Following ratification byTurkey and any three of theUnited Kingdom,France,Italy andJapan, the treaty would come into force for those "high contracting parties" and thereafter for each additional signatory upon deposit ofratification
Turkeyratified the treaty on 23 August 1923,[8][9] and all other signatories did so by 16 July 1924.[10] The Treaty of Lausanne became effective on 6 August 1924.[11]
Additionally, a declaration of amnesty was issued, granting immunity for crimes committed between 1914 and 1922, including theArmenian genocide andGreek genocide. HistorianHans-Lukas Kieser asserts that "Lausanne tacitly endorsed comprehensive policies of expulsion and extermination of hetero-ethnic and hetero-religious groups".[12]
Borders of Turkey according to the unratifiedTreaty of Sèvres (1920) which was annulled and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) in the aftermath of theTurkish War of Independence
After the withdrawal of the Greek forces inAsia Minor and the expulsion of the Ottoman Sultan by the Turkish army under the command ofMustafa Kemal Atatürk, theAnkara-basedKemalist government of theTurkish National Movement rejected the territorial losses imposed by the 1920Treaty of Sèvres, previously signed by the Ottoman Empire but remaining unratified. Britain had sought to undermine Turkish influence inMesopotamia andKirkuk by seeking the creation of aKurdish state inEastern Anatolia. Secular Kemalist rhetoric relieved some of the international concerns about the future ofArmenians who had survived the 1915Armenian genocide, and support for Kurdishself determination similarly declined. Under the Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923, Eastern Anatolia became part of modern-day Turkey, in exchange for Turkey's relinquishing Ottoman-era claims to the oil-rich Arab lands.[13]
Negotiations were undertaken during theConference of Lausanne.İsmet İnönü was the chief negotiator for Turkey.Lord Curzon, theBritish Foreign Secretary of that time, was the chief negotiator for the Allies, whileEleftherios Venizelos negotiated on behalf ofGreece. The negotiations took many months. On 20 November 1922, the peace conference was opened; the treaty was signed on 24 July 1923 after eight months of arduous negotiation, punctuated by several Turkish withdrawals. The Allied delegation included U.S. AdmiralMark L. Bristol, who served as the United States High Commissioner and supported Turkish efforts.[14]
Trade (abolition of capitulations) – Article 28 provided: "Each of the High Contracting Parties hereby accepts, in so far as it is concerned, the complete abolition of theCapitulations in Turkey in every respect."[16]
Convention respecting conditions of Residence and Business and Jurisdiction
Part V
Commercial Convention
Part VI
Convention concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations
Part VII
Agreement between Greece and Turkey respecting the reciprocal restitution of interned civilians and the exchange of prisoners of war
Part VIII
Declaration relating to the Amnesty
Part IX
Declaration relating to Muslim properties in Greece
Part X
Declaration relating to sanitary matters in Turkey;
Part XI
Declaration relating to the administration of justice;
Part XII
Protocol relation to certain concessions granted
Part XIII
Protocol relating to the accession of Belgium and Portugal to contain provisions and instruments signed at Lausanne
Part XIV
Protocol relating to the evacuation of the Turkish territory occupied by the British, French and Italian forces
Part XV
Protocol relative to theKaragatch territory and the Islands of Imbros and Tenedos
Part XVI
Protocol relative to the Treaty concluded at Sèvres between the principal Allied Powers and Greece on 10 August 1920, concerning the protection of minorities in Greece, and the Treaty concluded on the same day between the same Powers relating to Thrace.
Part XVII
Protocol relating to signature by the Serb-Croat-Slovene State
Adakale Island inRiver Danube was forgotten during the peace talks at theCongress of Berlin in 1878, which allowed it to remain ade jure Ottoman territory and the Ottoman SultanAbdülhamid II's private possession until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 (de facto untilRomania unilaterally declared its sovereignty on the island in 1919 and further strengthened this claim with theTreaty of Trianon in 1920.)[22] The island was submerged during the construction of theIron Gates hydroelectric plant in 1970, which also removed the possibility of a potential legal claim by the descendants ofAbdul Hamid II.
The treaty delimited the boundaries ofGreece,Bulgaria, andTurkey. Specifically, the treaty provisioned that all the islands, islets and other territories in the Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean in the original text) beyond three miles from the Turkish shores were ceded to Greece, with the exception ofImbros,Tenedos andRabbit islands (Articles 6 and 12). There is a special notation in both articles, that, unless it is explicitly stated otherwise, the Turkish sovereignty extends three miles from Asia Minor shores. The Greek population of Imbros and Tenedos was not included in thepopulation exchange and would be protected under the stipulations of the protection of the minorities in Turkey (Article 38).
The major issue of the war reparations, demanded from Greece by Turkey, was abandoned after Greece agreed to cedeKaraağaç to Turkey.
The territories to the south of Syria and Iraq on theArabian Peninsula, which still remained under Turkish control when theArmistice 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 theMutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen,Asir and parts ofHejaz like the city ofMedina. They were held by Turkish forces until 23 January 1919.[24][25]
By Articles 25 and 26 of the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey officially cededAdakale Island in theDanube River toRomania by formally recognizing the related provisions in theTreaty of Trianon of 1920.[6][22] Due to a diplomatic irregularity at the 1878Congress of Berlin, the island had technically remained part of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey also renounced its privileges inLibya which were defined by Article 10 of theTreaty of Ouchy in 1912 (per Article 22 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.)[6]
Among many agreements, there was a separate agreement with the United States, theChester concession. In the United States, the treaty was opposed by several groups, including the Committee Opposed to the Lausanne Treaty (COLT), and on 18 January 1927, theUnited States Senate refused to ratify the treaty by a vote of 50–34, six votes short of the two-thirds required by the Constitution.[26] Consequently, Turkey annulled the concession.[15]
Besides, Turkey was obliged to instate four European advisors on juridical matters for five years.[27] The advisors were to observe a juridical reform in Turkey. The advisors contract could be renewed if the suggested reforms would not have taken place.[27] Subsequently, Turkey worked on and announced a newTurkish constitution and reformed the Turkish justice system by including theSwiss Civil code, theItalian criminal law and the German Commercial law before completion of the five years in question.[27]
Turkish delegation after having signed the Treaty of Lausanne. The delegation was led byİsmet İnönü (in the middle).
The Treaty of Lausanne led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newRepublic of Turkey as thesuccessor state of the Ottoman Empire.[6] As result of the Treaty, the Ottoman public debt was divided between Turkey and the countries which emerged from the former Ottoman Empire.[33] The convention on theStraits lasted for thirteen years and was replaced with theMontreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits in 1936.[34] The customs limitations in the treaty were shortly after reworked.
For Greece, the treaty brought to an end the impetus behind theMegali Idea, the notion that modern Greece should encompass those territories in Asia Minor which had been populated with Greek speakers for up to 3000 years and which also formed the core of theEastern Roman Empire.
Hatay Province remained a part of theFrench Mandate of Syria according to the Treaty of Lausanne, but in 1938 gained its independence as theHatay State, which later joined Turkey after a referendum in 1939. Political amnesty was given to opponents of the new Turkish regime but the government reserved the right to make 150 exceptions.[35] The150 personae non gratae of Turkey (mostly descendants of the Ottoman dynasty) slowly acquired citizenship – the last one in 1974.[citation needed]
Lloyd George declared the treaty an "abject, cowardly and infamous surrender".[32][36]
HistorianNorman Naimark states, "The Lausanne Treaty served as a pivotal international precedent for transferring populations against their will throughout the twentieth century."[37]
HistorianRonald Grigor Suny states that the treaty "essentially confirmed the effectiveness of deportations or even murderous ethnic cleansing as a potential solution to population problems".[38]
HistorianHans-Lukas Kieser states, "Lausanne tacitly endorsed comprehensive policies of expulsion and extermination of hetero-ethnic and hetero-religious groups, with fatal attraction for German revisionists and many other nationalists".[12]
The Treaty of Lausanne has given rise to a number ofIslamistconspiracy theories in Turkey to defame the post-war Turkish secular nationalist rule of the country.[39][40] For example, it has been claimed that the treaty was signed to be effective for a century and there are "secret articles" in the treaty regarding Turkey's mining of natural resources. One conspiracy theory that had following in the 2010s held that the treaty would expire in 2023 and Turkey would be allowed to mineboron andpetroleum.[41] This appears not to have happened.
Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2023).When Democracy Died: The Middle East's Enduring Peace of Lausanne. Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781316516423.
Tusan, Michelle (2023).The Last Treaty: Lausanne and the End of the First World War in the Middle East. Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781009371087.online book review
Marabello, Thomas Quinn (2023) "The Centennial of the Treaty of Lausanne: Turkey, Switzerland, the Great Powers and a Soviet Diplomat’s Assassination,"Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 59: No. 3, Article 4. Available at:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss3/4
Conlin, Jonathan; Ozavci, Ozan (2023).They All Made Peace – What is Peace? The 1923 Lausanne Treaty and the New Imperial Order.Gingko.ISBN978-1-914983-05-4.
^Trask, Roger R. (1971). "Rejection of the Lausanne Treaty and Resumption of Diplomatic Relations, 1923–1927".The United States Response to Turkish Nationalism and Reform, 1914–1939. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 37–64.ISBN978-1-4529-3717-5.Project MUSEchapter 1252066.
^The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 18., No. 2, Supplement:Official Documents (Apr. 1924), pp. 92–95.
^Scharf, Michael (1996)."The Letter of the Law: The Scope of the International Legal Obligation to Prosecute Human Rights Crimes".Law and Contemporary Problems.59 (4):41–61.doi:10.2307/1192189.ISSN0023-9186.JSTOR1192189.Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved17 December 2020.Initially, the Allied Powers sought the prosecution of those responsible for the massacres. The Treaty of Sevres, which was signed on August 10, 1920, would have required the Turkish Government to hand over those responsible to the Allied Powers for trial. Treaty of Peace between the Allied Powers and Turkey [Treaty of Sevres], art. 230, at 235, Aug. 10, 1920, reprinted in 15 AM. J. INT'L L. 179 (Supp 1921). "The Treaty of Sevres was, however, not ratified and did not come into force. It was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, which not only did not contain provisions respecting the punishment of war crimes, but was accompanied by a 'Declaration of Amnesty' of all offenses committed between 1914 and 1922." Treaty of Peace between the Allied Powers and Turkey [Treaty of Lausanne], July 24, 1923, League of Nations Treaty Series 11, reprinted in 18 AM. J. INT'L L. 1 (Supp. 1924). 99.
^Marchesi, Antonio (2018). "Metz Yeghern and the Origin of International Norms on the Punishment of Crimes".The Armenian Massacres of 1915–1916 a Hundred Years Later: Open Questions and Tentative Answers in International Law. Springer International Publishing. pp. 143–160.ISBN978-3-319-78169-3.
^abDadrian, Vahakn (1998)."The Historical and Legal Interconnections Between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice".Yale Journal of International Law.23 (2).ISSN0889-7743.Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved24 November 2020.After expunging all references to Armenian massacres (and, indeed, to Armenia itself) from the draft version, they signed the Lausanne Peace Treaty, thus helping to codify impunity by ignoring the Armenian genocide. The international law flowing from this treaty, while a sham in reality, lent an aura of respectability to impunity because the imprimatur of a peace conference was attached to it. A French jurist observed that the treaty was an "assurance" for impunity for the crime of massacre; indeed, it was a "glorification" of the crime in which an entire race, the Armenians, was "systematically exterminated." For his part, David Lloyd George, wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain, found it appropriate to vent his ire when he was out of power: He declared the Western Allies' conduct at the Lausanne Conference to be "abject, cowardly and infamous." A creature of political deal-making, the Lausanne Treaty was a triumph of the principle of impunity over the principle of retributive justice.
^Findley, Carter V. (2010).Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789–2007. Yale University Press. pp. 224–226.ISBN978-0-300-15260-9.
