Short Essay on the The Treaty of Lausanne (1923)

After the defeat of Greece in the war, the Ankara government convened a conference at Lausanne in 1923. Some of the European powers were also invited to attend this conference to solve all the outstanding problems once for all.

In this conference, a treaty was signed between Greece and Turkey. According to it, most of the territories, which had been snatched away from Turkey in the Treaty of Sevres, were restored to her again.

But she had to give up her right over the following territories according to the Mandate system:

(i) Syria and Lebanon were given to France.

(ii) Iraq, Palestine and Trans-Jordan were given to England. The British promised for a separate state of the Jews in Palestine.

(iii) An independent state was established around Jerusalem.

As regards the significance of the Treaty of Lausanne, F. Schevill has observed:

“The independent Turkey which emerged from the Lausanne document was the handiwork of a single individual, Mustafa Kemal.

Identified with the province of Anatolia, better known in the west as Asia Minor and sentimentally cherished by the Turks as their homeland, Kemal’s Turkey freely renounced all claims not only to its former Christian dependencies of the Balkan peninsula but also to the Arab-inhabited lands around the eastern bend of the Mediterranean.”