100 years of Lausanne: How modern Turkey rose from the ashes of WWI

For Turkey, the treaty succeeded in tearing up the law of imperialist powers. It was also a certificate of acceptance of the Turkish nation within its internationally-recognised borders.

Albane Simon

Signed on 24 July 1923, the treaty had profound consequences for the Middle East and beyond. On its centennial, an understanding of it rests on an appreciation of the complex factors that led to it.

100 years of Lausanne: How modern Turkey rose from the ashes of WWI

Omer Onhon

last update on 22 Jul 2023

One of the founding documents of modern Turkey is a century old. The Lausanne Treaty was signed on 24 July 1923, a moment made in the wake of World War I that was to have profound consequences for the Middle East and beyond.

On its centennial, an understanding of Lausanne rests on an appreciation of the complex factors that led to it.

By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire’s glory days felt far away and it was shrinking. The most traumatic episode was the Balkan War of 1912 when the Empire lost more than four-fifths of its territory in Europe and over two-thirds of its population.

Getty — Greek refugees trying to leave Constantinople in 1922. Greek refugees from Asia Minor who were evacuated or relocated to Greece following the Treaty of Lausanne and the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

With each loss, hundreds of thousands of Ottoman subjects came into the empire’s remaining territory, with migration from the Balkans and the Caucasus especially high.

These were also times of internal crisis, deep divides and power struggles between traditionalist conservatives and progressive nationalists in the Ottoman Empire. This divide is said to have been one of the major causes of the defeat, with catastrophic results in the Balkan War.

The empire became known as "the sick man of Europe" as great powers and smaller ones alike competed to take advantage, and territory, from its plight.

Christians bearing grudges

Christian Europe held a grudge against the main builder of the Empire: the Turks, who had challenged them during the Crusades and conquered Constantinople (to become Istanbul), led to the collapse of Byzantium and fought them for centuries.

And so the Young Turks – who belonged to the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) – put an end to the 33-year rule of Sultan Abdülhamid in 1909. They were alarmed at the state the Empire was in and were inspired by libertarian movements in Europe.

A few years later, the Ottomans entered the first world war on the side of the Central Powers, led by Germany, after being snubbed by Great Britain.

The Ottoman generation born in the 1880s spent most of their life away from their homes. They fought in different parts of the Empire against Russians, the British, Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, rebellious Arab tribes and Italians, among others, on battlefronts over three continents.

Their grand finale would be the War of Independence against former allies who invaded the capital and other parts of their last stronghold at home.

By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire's glory days felt far away and it was shrinking. The most traumatic episode was the Balkan War of 1912 when the Empire lost more than four-fifths of its territory in Europe and over two-thirds of its population.

At the end of the war, the Empire was on the defeated side. But it had been struggling with the most unfavourable conditions. This so-called sick man had fought on several different fronts for four years, prolonged the war and inflicted heavy losses on its enemies.

The Ottomans repelled the British and the French at Gallipoli, captured an entire British army at Kut el Amara in today's Iraq, and kept another in check at Gaza. On the Caucasus front, it confronted the Russians, Armenians, the British and even its own ally, Germany, and captured Baku and the rest of Azerbaijan.

The treaties that led to a treaty

And so, the story of the road to Lausanne is more nuanced. It was paved with several agreements; Mudros, Sèvres and Mudanya being the most relevant.

Ottomans and the Entente Powers signed the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918, which ended the war between them, on the British battleship Agamemnon, in the Port of Mudros, off the island of Lemnos.

The ship was named after the king who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War against the Anatolians some 3000 years ago, adding to the symbolism of the occasion.

The Mudros document's 25 articles included significant provisions, including the immediate demobilisation of the Ottoman army. It also gave the Allied Powers the right to occupy any strategic point. And they could use the Dardanelles and Istanbul Straits freely and occupy fortifications on their shores.

Immediately following the armistice, allied troops landed in Istanbul. The French and Italians occupied parts of Anatolia which were their share according to what they had agreed among themselves priorly. Armenian militia regiments, together with Armenian military units serving within the Russian army, launched an offensive in Eastern Anatolia.

In May 1919, the Greek Army landed troops in Izmir and occupied the Aegean region. This added insult to injury for the Turks and accelerated Turkish resistance against occupation.

A worn-out cargo ship and a voyage to a new nation

The next day on 16 May, Mustafa Kemal Pasha – later Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey – took off from Istanbul in a worn-out cargo ship with a staff of 48. Three days later he landed in the city of Samsun on the shores of the Black Sea, effectively starting the War of Independence.

The British led the campaign against Turkey from the outset of World War I.

Until the end of the 19th century, Britain had stood by the Ottoman Empire against Russia but eventually, it changed strategy and positioned itself against the sultan. The British opted to join the pack to take the best prizes from the Empire, which would later disintegrate.

Oil discoveries in the Arab territories of the Empire, German interest in these areas and their getting too friendly with the Ottomans contributed to Britain's shift in position.

Until the end of the 19th century, Britain had stood by the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Oil discoveries in the Arab territories of the Empire, and German interest in these areas, contributed to Britain's changing its position against the sultan.

India has been another major factor shaping British policies. In effect, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world was not in the Ottoman Empire, but in the British Empire.

The "All India Muslim League" and similar groups led protests and organised charities to send to Mustafa Kemal's nationalists. These were alarming developments for the British who were already facing troubles in India, known as the British Empire's Jewel in the Crown.

At later stages, Soviet expansionism, and its campaign to export communist revolution also played a role in Britain's policies, but this time more in favour of Turkey.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Kemal turned Ankara, in Central Anatolia, into the headquarters of the nationalist resistance. While he was trying to put together a regular army, nationalist militia led by officers and supported by the leftovers of the Ottoman army, waged a guerilla war against invaders.

Alamy Stock Photo — Squalor and Decay in a Turkish mountain district. Turkey, Anatolia (1923)

The government in Istanbul, which was under the control of the Allies, had branded Mustafa Kemal and the nationalists as traitors. The sultan lost the parliament in Istanbul when the Allies closed it down and most of its members fled to Ankara to reopen it as the National Parliament, or Milli Meclis.

Mustafa Kemal, even under the most difficult circumstances, insisted on deriving legitimacy from the parliament which was the representative of the nation.

Five treaties and only one thrown away

At the end of the First World War, the Allies signed separate peace treaties with all the Central Power countries:

Treaty of Versailles with Germany in June 1919.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye with Austria in September 1919.
Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria in November 1919.
Treaty of Trianon with Bulgaria on June 1920.
Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire in August 1920.

The peace agreement with Turkey was unique. Sèvres became the only one on this list which was challenged, torn apart and thrown into the garbage can of history.

Even some major British figures referred to the Sèvres Treaty as a death warrant for the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty squeezed Turks into a very small piece of land in Central Anatolia. The rest of the country was partitioned among Greece, France and Italy. It also enlarged Armenia and established Kurdistan in the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey.

Once an Empire, now a vassal state

The Ottoman Empire was, in effect, being diminished into a micro, vassal state.

The Sultanate Council in Istanbul, under immense pressure and threats from the Allies, was forced to accept the Sèvres agreement despite its severity, but it was never ratified.

Mustafa Kemal's nationalists in Ankara – who eventually won the War of Independence – had already rejected Sèvres. Atatürk himself, in his account of that war, said: "Sèvres was the last phase of the centuries-long assassination attempt to decimate the Turkish nation."

The Sèvres Treaty was the last phase of the centuries-long assassination attempt to decimate the Turkish nation.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founding father of modern Turkey

No country other than Greece ratified the treaty. The Sèvres Treaty was a dead document from the outset.

The Lausanne Treaty was to replace an already dead Sèvres treaty. The British and the Greeks aimed to use Lausanne to try to breathe life into Sèvres, but failed to do so.

Eventually, the Turkish nationalist army expelled the French and the Italians from south and southeast Anatolia, defeated Armenian forces in the east and crushed the Greek Army in the final offensive in August 1922.

A catastrophe in Asia Minor

The Turkish army entered İzmir (Smyrna) on 9 September and ended the Greek occupation of Western Anatolia. Greek armies had marched into Anatolia, dreaming of reclaiming all former lands which they considered theirs, including İstanbul and reviving Byzantium.

These Greek ambitions turned into what went down in their history as the "Asia Minor catastrophe".

Turkish and Allied commanders of France, Italy, Great Britain and Greece met in Mudanya, a small town on the coast of the Marmara Sea, in October 1922.

After a week of negotiations, they signed the Armistice. Among other items, they agreed on the principle that Turks would take back Eastern Thrace from the Greeks, but the Turkish army would only enter there upon the signing of the peace agreement. The peace conference would convene in Lausanne in November.

The Turkish army was victorious and drove the Greeks out of Western Anatolia but Istanbul and Dardanelles were still under occupation.

The British attempted to stop the Turkish army from advancing on Istanbul and Dardanelles by force and called on its allies and dominions to stand together with them against the Turks. They declined and the British had to adopt a more conciliatory tone.

Having won the war, the Turks now had to win the peace.

The British attempted to stop the Turkish army from advancing on Istanbul and Dardanelles and called on its allies to help. They declined and the British had to adopt a more conciliatory tone. Having won the war, the Turks now had to win the peace.

The Lausanne Conference

The Lausanne Conference opened in November 1922 with Turkey Britain, France, Italy, Greece, the Kingdom of Serbo-Croat-Slovenia and Japan as participants. The Soviet Union, Romania and Bulgaria were present as Black Sea coastal states. The United States was an observer.

It was a war of wits and nerves between the allies, led by Great Britain, and Turkey.

The head of the British delegation was Lord Curzon, the country's foreign secretary. He wanted to impose his authority on the conference but was challenged at every step by, İsmet İnönü his Turkish counterpart.

İnönü was the commander of the western front until just a few weeks ago when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk appointed him as foreign minister and head of the Turkish delegation to Lausanne.

İnönü once said that one of his major challenges in Lausanne was how to tie his shoes because as a military man, he had worn boots all his life. His military background and modest diplomatic experience turned out to be both an advantage and a disadvantage.

The Lausanne Conference which opened in November 192 was a war of wits and nerves between the allies, led by Great Britain, and Turkey. France, Italy, Greece, the Kingdom of Serbo-Croat-Slovenia, Japan and the Soviet Union were also participants. The United States was an observer.

A lord and a military man

Lord Curzon regarded Lausanne as an exercise to slightly revise the agreements of Mondros and Sèvres whereas İnönü's position sought the continuation of Mudanya, which the Turks had signed as victors against the Greek Army and the occupiers.

The British and the French did not wish the Turks to set a precedent for their Muslim and other subjects, by crowning their military success with a political success in Lausanne.

The British acted as if the military victories of the Turks were minor achievements of little relevance. When pressed on that point, the British would state that the Turks had defeated the Greeks, and not the British and the allies.

Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, wanted to send a strong message to its Muslims and dominions, as well as other nations including Turks, that no nation in the world could win against Britain. "You only get what we give you" was his message.

The British intended to keep Turkey confined to its territory with as many restrictions as possible. The Allies aimed to preserve as much as possible the administrative, financial and political privileges they enjoyed in the Ottoman Empire.

The British and the French did not wish the Turks to set a precedent for their Muslim and other subjects, by crowning their military success with a political success in Lausanne.

Allies divided

The initial challenge of the Turkish delegation in Lausanne was to be treated as an equal.

It is worth noting that during the four years of occupation of the Ottoman territories, squabbles among the Allies had a significant impact on the course of events. Disagreements among the allies, especially on the sharing of the Ottoman spoils, turned out to be a major advantage for Turkey.

So much so that France recognised the Ankara government in 1921 and even provided them with some weapons, including machine guns. The Italians had also come to terms with the nationalists. But despite that, in Lausanne, the French and Italians especially fought especially hard to preserve their own privileges.

On the Turkish side, there were two different approaches regarding the objectives of the negotiations in Lausanne. One was maximalist and wanted to revive the Empire. The other was to establish a fully independent nation-state on its ruins. The nationalists had won militarily, now they had to register it politically.

Signed and ratified

The Treaty of Lausanne was finally signed on 24 July 1923 and formally ratified by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara on 21 August. Its ratification by all nations was soon to be completed.

The Treaty drew Turkey's borders and dealt with territorial issues and it sets the basis on which the new country would be built.

Turkey's border with Syria was the same as in the Ankara Agreement signed with the French in 1921. Alexandretta remained outside of the borders of Turkey.

Later in 1937, Turkey reached an agreement with France where Alexandretta became independent, called the Republic of Hatay, and in 1939 in line with the outcome of a referendum, it joined Turkey.

Turkey and Britain could not come to terms on Mosul but agreed to negotiate this issue between themselves and take it to the League of Nations. In 1925, the League of Nations awarded the province to Iraq.

It is worth noting that during the four years of occupation of the Ottoman territories, squabbles among the Allies had a significant impact on the course of events. Disagreements among the allies, especially on the sharing of the Ottoman spoils, turned out to be a major advantage for Turkey.

Distribution of territories

The borders with Greece remained as set out in the Mudanya Armistice Treaty, with the addition of the Karaağaç region, awarded to Turkey as compensation for war reparations.

The islands of Bozcaada and Gökçeada which stood at the entrance of the Dardanelles, as well as the Tavşan Islands, came under Turkish sovereignty. The other Aegean islands, ceded to Greece in 1913, did not change nationality. Conditions remained that these islands would not be used for military purposes remained.

The Dodecanese Islands, on the other hand, remained with Italy. They only went back to Greece after World War II.

Negotiations were at their toughest over the Straits, the 30-kilometre seaway connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

In the final version of Lausanne, sovereignty over the Straits was to be exercised by an international board with a Turkish chairman, under the guarantee of the League of Nations. Both shores of the Straits were demilitarised and Turkish troops were banned from entering the area.

This unsatisfactory arrangement was short-lived. In 1936, with the Montreux Convention, all these restrictions were nullified and Turkey established full sovereignty over the Straits.

Sèvres' aspirations for Armenia and Kurdistan were dropped altogether in Lausanne.

One of the most important achievements for Turkey was the abolition of all the defeats that Western countries had imposed on the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years, which caused particular damage and humiliation for the Empire in the last decades.

The defeats were political, judicial and involved economic privileges granted to other states. The Ottomans used these capitulations as a means to seek favour from the states in question.

One of the first things which the Committee of Union and Progress did when it took power was to notify all states, in September 1914 that such terms were abolished.

But this decision could not be implemented because of the World War and its consequences. Now in Lausanne, Turks were finally able to be rid of these onerous conditions imposed on their country once and for all.

The Turks refused to pay the war reparations demanded by the Allies. But neither did they receive what they demanded from Greece.

Negotiations were at their toughest over the Straits, the 30-kilometre seaway connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Lausanne produced an unsatisfactory, short-lived agreement which was nullified in 1936 with the Montreux Convention which awarded Turkey full sovereignty over the Straits.

Condemnation of Greece

Article 59 of the Lausanne Treaty registered the acts of the Greek army in Anatolia during their occupation as "contrary to the laws of war."

The Turks demanded that the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate be removed from Turkey. The Allies opposed this proposal. In the end, even though the text of the treaty does not include a provision on its status, it was agreed to keep the Patriarchate in Istanbul on condition that it engages only with its own religious affairs.

There was no longer any international limit imposed on the Turks over their military forces. All foreign courts over parts of its territories were abolished, as were the rights of other nations to supervise how Turkey supervised its minorities.

Lausanne was a major success for Turkey but the opposition criticised İsmet İnönü and claimed that he had given away too much. One of the biggest criticisms was Turkey's renunciation of rights over Egypt and Cyprus. However, the Ottomans had already given away Cyprus in 1878 and Egypt in 1882.

Even a hundred years later, certain ideological groups and Ottomanists continue to criticise Lausanne. They even go as far as claiming that there are secret clauses which banned Turkey from exploring its natural resources or that the Lausanne Treaty will end in 2023. These claims are utter nonsense.

Turkey might have failed to achieve the full set of its objectives, but give and take is in the nature of negotiations. Everything should be assessed in light of the circumstances of the time and not with hindsight.

Lausanne was a major success for Turkey but the opposition criticised İsmet İnönü and claimed that he had given away too much. One of the biggest criticisms was Turkey's renunciation of rights over Egypt and Cyprus. However, the Ottomans had already given away Cyprus in 1878 and Egypt in 1882.

A century ago, there was a great disparity between Turkey and Britain and the others in terms of means. Britain was an industrialised country and a colonial empire, while Turkey had just emerged from a decade of war and had almost exhausted all its means and resources.

Shortcomings and sacrifices, but also acceptance of a nation

What tomorrow would bring was unclear. Turkey could find itself in a position where it had to fight for its existence once again. It had to keep its remaining scarce resources ready for that possibility.

Despite some shortcomings and some painful sacrifices, Turkey was able to get most of what it wanted. It achieved peace and could finally resume its development and restoration as a sovereign nation and a newborn Republic on 29 October 1923.

Some of Turkey's disappointments at Lausanne were rectified later under the foreign policy initiatives of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

For Turkey, the Lausanne Treaty succeeded in tearing up the law of imperialist powers. It was also a certificate of acceptance of the Turkish nation within its internationally-recognised borders.

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