Treaty of Sèvres

After the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the First World War, the Allied powers negotiated peace terms with the Ottoman government. The treaty was signed at Sèvres, France, on 10 August 1920. It formed part of the postwar settlement, but it did not become an operative peace settlement: the agreement was never ratified. Its proposed terms must therefore be distinguished from the later arrangements that were actually established.

The treaty proposed extensive territorial changes. It required the Ottoman government to renounce rights over Arab territories and North Africa, and envisaged an independent Armenia and a process that could lead to Kurdish autonomy and potentially independence under specified conditions. It also provided for Greek gains in eastern Thrace and on the Anatolian west coast, and for Greek control of Aegean islands commanding the Dardanelles. The provisions reflected the Allied powers’ effort to reshape the former empire, but they were not implemented as a ratified settlement.

The treaty was rejected by the Turkish nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk). The nationalist forces’ military and political successes changed the balance of power and undermined the proposed terms. Historian A. E. Montgomery also emphasizes that disagreements among the Allied powers contributed to the treaty’s failure; it is therefore misleading to attribute its collapse to one cause alone. Because the treaty was never ratified, it did not establish the proposed postwar order.

Following further conflict and negotiations, the Allied powers and representatives of the new Turkish state concluded the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923. The Lausanne settlement replaced Sèvres and provided the basis for the international recognition and territorial arrangements of the Republic of Turkey. The contrast between the two agreements shows how military outcomes and political negotiations can overturn a peace plan before it enters into force.