The Treaties of Sevres and Lausanne

        The Turks were the first to defy the Paris peace treaties and this was possible due to several very important reasons. All the powers were exhausted after a draining war that had lasted four years, much longer than most had anticipated. They were not only physically but also morally. The four years had cost the countries a great deal of money and supplies not to mention human lives. When Mustafa Kemal took the attack to the Greeks in Smyrna, Britain and the other allied powers of Europe were not willing to fight against them and risk another conflict so soon after a world war. This allowed Attaturk to force the Greeks out before anything could be done by the allies. Another thing that allowed Kemal and the Young Turks to do this is that the British thought that the treaty of Sevres was harsh towards the Turks. They had taken away and overrun the country’s capitol Constantinople, they had taken large amounts of territory around the Balkans and were making them pay reparations. In a way the allies felt sympathy towards the Ottomans. The British had interests in the Southern areas of Iraq and to exploit the copious amounts of oil in the region and if they could have better relations with the Turks then this may be made easier.

        The allies wanted to encourage the new government of the young Turks because it meant more of a democratic style of government. They supported the ousting of the Sultan and the new constitution of the new Turkey. Mustafa Kemal was also in support of this and if this form of government was to continue in momentum then his idea of nationalism should not be hindered. The much more lenient treaty of Lausanne was possible also because the British liked the idea of a future democratic ally in Turkey with such a strangle hold on the major ports and sea exits of the ever increasing power of communist Russia. The treaty went against the idea of Woodrow Wilson’s Idea of Self Determination with still many Greeks in the country and the capitol under foreign control. The allies and especially the British went easy on the Turks the second time due to several reasons apart from the obvious attacks by Mustafa Kemal and his successful attempt to make the treaty easier on the Turks.

        When the treaty of Lausanne came about in 1923 it was much more favourable to the Turkish population because the territories of Eastern Thrace and Rhodes were to be returned to the Turkish. Constantinople was once again to come under control of the Turks and Smyrna also came under control of the Turkish. The Greeks fled from the country and ceased to hold any power in the city of Smyrna. The Dardanelles were to be re-opened and Turkey would no longer have to pay reparations to the victorious allies. All this took a great strain off the transition of the Government. The Sultan later fled the country and the heroic Attaturk, the father of Turkey became the first President of the new Turkish state.

This new treaty, three years after Sevres was much more acceptable to the Turkish and was possible because of the exhausted allied states and that they knew that turkey was a reluctant ally of the Germans, and that they could possibly become an ally of the British in the long run and a very handy ally at that. Many other issues came into play that allowed the Turks to get away with this new and improved peace treaty, which in many other circumstances would not have been possible. A defeated nation that was allied to the nation that started a war that had killed millions should not have been let off so easy.