LAUSANNE, CONFERENCE OF. The Conference of Lausanne between the Turkish Government established at Angora and the Governments of the four principal Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan), Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, with the United States represented by an observer, lasted, with a break in the middle from Nov.. 20, 1922, to July 24, 1923, and resulted in the signing of no fewer than 17 diplomatic instru ments.
2. Convention respecting the regime of the Straits (July 24, 1923). (See STRAITS QUESTION, THE.) 3. Convention respecting the Thracian frontiers (July 24, 1923) under which neutralised and demilitarised zones were estab lished.
4. Convention respecting conditions of residence and business and jurisdiction in Turkey (July 24, 1923) to replace the capitu lations.
5. Commercial convention (July 24, 6. Convention respecting the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations and protocol (Jan. 3o, 1923).
7. Graeco-Turkish agreement on the restitution of interned civilians and the exchange of prisoners of war (Jan. 3o, 1923).
8. Declaration relating to the administration of justice (July 24, 1923) to replace the capitulations (No. I I).
9. A protocol relating to the evacuation of the Turkish terri tory occupied by the British, French, and Italian forces, and declaration (July 24, 1923) (No. 1o. Protocol relating to the Karagach territory, and to the islands Imbros and Tenedos (July 24, (No. II. Protocol relating to treaties regarding the protection of minorities in Greece, and regarding Thrace, which had been con cluded on Aug. Io, 1920, between Greece and the principal Allied Powers (July 24, 1923) (No. (See STRAITS QUESTION, THE; DEDiAGATCH; MOSUL; TURKEY.) Conditions Before the Conference.—At the conference of San Remo (q.v.) a peace treaty between the Allies and Turkey had been drawn up, and after the representatives of the Ottoman Government of Constantinople had submitted their observations, and these observations had been rejected, they were compelled, at Sevres, on Aug. 1o, 1920, to sign the terms presented to them. When the Lausanne Conference assembled power in Turkey had passed to the National Government at Angora, and this Govern ment was carrying on a war against the Greeks (who had landed at Smyrna on May 16, 1919, at the invitation of Great Britain, France, and the United States).
The Angora Government repudiated the Treaty of Sevres and continued to fight for the terms laid down in the Turkish National Pact of Jan. 28, 1920. In Sept. 1922 the Graeco-Turkish war in Anatolia ended in the complete victory of the Turkish Nationalist forces, who drove the Greeks into the sea and came into direct contact with the British forces in the zone of the Straits. On Sept. 23, 1922, the principal Allied Powers invited the Angora, Government to a peace conference on two bases: (I) the restora tion of Turkish sovereignty over Constantinople and Thrace up to the line of the river Maritsa; (2) the exclusion, pending the final settlement, of Turkish military forces from Thrace and respect by the Turks for certain zones adjoining the Straits which the Allied authorities had declared neutral during the Graeco Turkish conflict. On Sept. 23 the Angora Government accepted
this invitation and proposed a preliminary armistice conference, which met at Mudania on Oct. 3 and resulted in the signature of an armistice convention on the 11th.
Results of the Conference.—Thus the Turkish delegates ar rived at Lausanne as victors in their recent local war with the Greeks and on an equal footing with the principal Allied Powers. Indeed, throughout the conference, the Turks were less unwilling to resume hostilities than were the principal Allied Powers, who had demobilised the greater part of their forces in the East.
The Turkish Gains.—In brief, the Turks secured at Lausanne practically everything which they had demanded in their national pact. The former Arab provinces of Asiatic Turkey, which had been mandated to France and Britain, were not restored, but otherwise Turkey recovered everything which she had possessed in 1914, particularly Smyrna, Constantinople, and Eastern Thrace; and the Treaty confirmed the rectification of the north ern frontier of Syria in Turkey's favour, which had been made by the so-called "Franklin-Bouillon" Agreement of Oct. 20,1921, while the destiny of Mosul was referred, by agreement between Turkey and Great Britain, to the League of Nations.
The settlement made at Lausanne about the Dardanelles and the Bosporus is described elsewhere (see STRAITS QUESTION, THE). The special spheres of influence in Anatolia, which had been as signed to France and Italy by a tripartite agreement of Aug. io, 1920, between those two Powers and Great Britain, were tacitly dropped, and there was no further question of giving autonomy to Northern Kurdistan or of ceding Turkish territory to the Arme nian Republic of Erivan, which had since been included in the dominions of Turkey's ally, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. No restrictions were imposed on the Turkish naval and military forces, and no control was asserted by the Allies over Turkish finance. Meanwhile, on Jan. 3o, 1923, the Greek and Turkish delegations had signed a separate convention providing for the compulsory interchange of minorities left on the wrong side of the new frontier, with a special exemption in favour of Christians domiciled in the city of Constantinople and of Muslims domiciled in Western Thrace.