Second Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923)

- One hundred years ago.... and on this very day in 1923, it can be said that the Ottoman Empire had collapsed... and the Republic of Turkey was founded..!

- Those events date back to when Turkey, the Ottoman state, entered World War I in 1914 alongside Germany against the Triple Entente powers (Britain, Russia and France). After numerous military confrontations in the Middle East, the Ottomans admitted defeat to the Allies, and upon the end of World War I in 1918 the victorious Allied states concluded the "Treaty of Sèvres" on 10 August 1920, which was signed by the Ottoman government in Istanbul. Under it the territories of the Ottoman state were partitioned, and most of the non-Turkish nationalities within the Ottoman state were granted independence, but the Turks, led by Kemal Atatürk, rejected that treaty. Atatürk formed a new government in Ankara and, with the Turkish army, entered what is known as the Turkish War of Independence against Greece, which ended with Turkish victory on 11 October 1922 (after Greek forces had attacked the western coast of Anatolia on 3 March 1920, while the Allies occupied the Ottoman capital Istanbul on 19 March).

- Victory in the War of Independence made Mustafa Kemal a national hero, and on 1 November 1922 Kemal Atatürk declared the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate and dissolved the Istanbul government, asserting that the delegation from the Ankara government he sent headed by İsmet İnönü to the Second Lausanne conference in 1923 was the sole representative of the Turks in Lausanne. After Mustafa Kemal and his fellow Turkish nationalists rejected the "Treaty of Sèvres" that the Ottoman government in Istanbul had signed with the colonial powers.

- In the wake of that, the "Lausanne" conference was convened a second time after international pressure on the Turks; its sessions lasted three months and culminated in the signing of the "Treaty of Lausanne" on 24 July 1923 at the "Beau-Rivage Palace" hotel in the city of Lausanne in southern Switzerland. The parties to the treaty were the victorious colonial powers after World War I (especially Britain and France and Italy), and the Ottoman Empire, whose delegation to the conference was headed by İsmet İnönü (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey). It was named the "Second Treaty of Lausanne" to distinguish it from the First Lausanne agreement (the Treaty of Ouchy) signed on 18 October 1912 between Italy and the Ottoman state, which resulted in the latter's withdrawal from Libya in favor of Italy.

- This treaty put an end to the Ottoman Caliphate empire that Western states at the time called the "sick man", and established the modern Turkish nation-state under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with its capital at Ankara.

- As for the structure of the agreement, the treaty was divided into a general preamble about its purpose and the plenipotentiaries of the signatory parties, then five main parts comprising 143 articles, distributed across 16 sections, and a preface and 4 chapters-sections-; it entered into force on 23 August 1923 after ratification by the Turkish parliament. Under it, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the founding of the modern Turkish Republic on 29 October 1923.!

- The first party in the Second Treaty of Lausanne comprised the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia (on one side), while the second party was Turkey. The purpose of the treaty was to end the state of war between them that had existed in the East since 1914, and they decided to conclude a treaty for that purpose and appointed plenipotentiaries to carry it out. Turkey's delegation included Mr. İsmet Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy for Adrianople, Dr. Reza Nur Bey, Minister of Health and deputy for Sinop, and Hasan Bey, the former minister and deputy for Trabzon, as plenipotentiaries of the Grand National Assembly government of Turkey.

- The general structure of the agreement in terms of parts, sections and articles was as follows: (the information is drawn from several sources including Al Jazeera):

- Part One: Political Provisions (45 Articles), which constituted 31.5% of the total number of the treaty's articles and included two sections: the first section, the provisions concerning territories (from Article 2 to Article 29), the second section, nationality (from 30 to 36), and the third section, protection of minorities (from 37 to 45).

- Part Two: Financial Provisions (18 Articles), divided into two sections: the first section, the Ottomanpublicdebt (from 46 to 57), and the second section, miscellaneous provisions (from 58 to 63).

- Part Three: Economic Provisions (37 Articles), which comprised about 25.8% of the total articles, and were divided into six sections: the first section, properties and rights and interests (from 64 to 72), the second section, contracts and claims and judgments (from 73 to 83), the third section, debts (Articles 84 and 85), the fourth section, industrial and literary and artistic property (from 86 to 91), the fifth section, the mixed arbitration court (from 92 to 98), the sixth section, treaties (Articles 99 and 100)....

- Part Four: Communications and Health Matters (18 Articles), comprising two sections: the first section, the field of communications (from 101 to 113), the second section, health matters (from 114 to 118), while Part Five dealt with miscellaneous provisions (25 articles), in three sections: the first section, prisoners of war (from 119 to 123), the second section, graves (from 124 to 136), the third section, general provisions (from 137 to 143).

● Article One of the Treaty of Lausanne 1923 stipulated that “upon the entry into force of the present treaty, the state of peace shall thereafter be fully re-established between the British Empire and France and Italy and Japan and Greece and Romania and the Serb-Croat-Slovene State on the one part, and Turkey on the other part, and between their respective subjects.”

● With this foundational opening, the remaining provisions , address all of the issues and problems that regulate relations between these parties, bearing in mind that some of these parties underwent profound transformations during the hundred years following the signing of the treaty,

● It also regulated the use of the Turkish straits and the rules of passage and navigation therein in war and peace, and contained texts that set conditions for residence, commerce and the judiciary in Turkey, a reconsideration of the status of the Ottoman state, and the fate of the territories that had belonged to it prior to its defeat in World War I during 1914-1918

● The treatyabrogatedtheapplicationof"the Treaty ofSèvres"and itsoppressiveclausesagainsttheOttomanstate, and founded what later became known as the "secular "Republic of Turkey after the abolition of the Islamic Caliphate system, and it formalized the borders of Greece and Bulgaria with the Turkish state, which retained the incorporation of Istanbul and Western Thrace, and it included provisions relating to the rescheduling of the Ottoman state's debts.

●      ItwasdecidedthatTurkeywouldrelinquishCyprusandLibyaand Egyptand the Sudan (where Article No. 17 of the treaty ... referred to this, stating that the cession by Turkey of all rights and privileges over Egypt and the Sudan applies as of 5 November 1914) , and Iraqand the Levant, except for cities that were located in Syria such as Urfa and Adana GaziAntep and Kilis and Marash,

● The Treaty of Lausanne stipulated the protection of the Greek Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey, and the Muslim minority in Greece, and it obligated the Turkish government to preserve the lives, rights, and freedoms of all citizens within its territory, and to treat them equally before the law regardless of origin, nationality, language, or religion.

● It also obligated it not to place any restrictions on citizens in the use of any language they choose, whatever it may be, whether in private relations or in public meetings or in the fields of religion, commerce, media, and publishing. While affirming the rights of Turkey's political and economic sovereignty and the abolition of the application of the system of foreign privileges on its territory.

● One of the most important political consequences of the second "Treaty of Lausanne"—according to Kurdish politicians—is that itconsecratedthemarginalizationofthe Kurdsand theirrightswhenitignoredgrantingthemindependenceasadistinctnationalstate,aswassetoutinthe"Treaty ofSèvres".

● Lausanne also stipulated recognition of the borders of Greece as set out in the Treaty of Mudanya (October 1922), while Greece ceded the Qara Aghaj area to Turkey as compensation for the war. As for the borders between the new Republic of Turkey and Italy, Turkey ceded to it some islands including the island of Rhodes....!

● In general, some see that the Treaty of Lausanne has its positives and negatives, like any agreement made in history.

● Although there are no provisions in the treaty that specify a period of its validity or speak of an expiration date, rumors circulated in Turkish circles that there are secret clauses in the Treaty of Lausanne that allow Ankara to eliminate the legal effect of its provisions after a full one hundred years from the date of signature.

● In this regard, in 1939 Kamil Atatürk carried out the occupation of the Syrian Sanjak of Alexandretta after political arrangements with the French Mandate government in Damascus. The sanjak remains occupied by Turkey to this day under the name Hatay!

● In addition, in 1974 the Turkish army carried out a military operation that ended with the occupation of northern Cyprus and the establishment of what is known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which to date is recognized internationally by no one except its Turkish founders themselves.

● Some say that the occupations of Alexandretta and northern Cyprus were, for example, the first steps by leaders of the Turkish Republic to dismantle the Treaty of Lausanne.!

● And Arab fears grow in the face of the intentions of some Turkish officials, as happened when statements by Zeynelabidin Türkoglu, Head of the Turkish Government Lands Archive, circulated, who said: “The existence of 77063 "hujiyyat" of land covering areas of Mosul and Kirkuk can be useful in the legal challenges that Turkey may face in the future, as a result of the security situation in Iraq,” which, according to Türkoglu, necessitates the Turkish claim to them.!!

● As also appeared in some speeches by Turkish President Erdoğan, who said in 2016, concluding his speech in 2016 by asserting that “Lausanne is not a sacred text. We will discuss it and seek to obtain a better agreement.”! Although the direction of these statements was related to the borders with Greece....! Yet some Turkish politicians have been promoting the centenary of the Turkish Republic..on a day like this for years, saying it is an occasion to remove the injustice done to Turkey in that agreement and its ceding of some of its lands.. in reference to the emergence of a neo-Ottoman tendency..

● (according to several sources, including Al Jazeera and electronic sites and research)