Treaty of Lausanne

After the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the First World War, the Treaty of Sèvres was signed in 1920 but never ratified. Turkish nationalist resistance and the subsequent military and political changes made its proposed settlement obsolete. Representatives of the Allied powers and the new Turkish state met at Lausanne, Switzerland, to negotiate a replacement peace settlement. The conference opened in November 1922 and concluded with the treaty’s signature on 24 July 1923.

The treaty was concluded between representatives of Turkey and the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It addressed issues arising from the state of war between the parties and laid a legal foundation for the Republic of Turkey’s international relations. Its terms replaced the earlier Sèvres proposals with a negotiated settlement recognizing the modern Turkish state’s territorial boundaries.

The treaty recognized Turkey’s boundaries and the renunciation of claims to its former Arab provinces. Turkey recognized British possession of Cyprus and Italian possession of the Dodecanese. The Allied powers dropped demands for autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan and for Turkey to cede territory to Armenia, and imposed no controls on Turkey’s finances or armed forces. The straits linking the Aegean and Black seas were declared open to shipping. The treaty and its accompanying documents also addressed minority protection, territorial delimitation, economic questions and the legal regime of the straits.

Lausanne is often treated as the final peace settlement of the First World War involving Turkey and as the agreement that replaced Sèvres. It helped establish the international framework for the new Republic of Turkey. The treaty should be distinguished from associated conventions and documents concluded at Lausanne; for example, the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations was a separate instrument signed on 30 January 1923. The settlement was therefore a package of negotiated agreements, not a single document resolving every issue on its own.