The importance of Lausanne

On July 24, we entered the 101st year of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Until last year, I would always come across statements on social media during the anniversaries of Lausanne that belittled the treaty and claimed it contained secret clauses detrimental to Turkey.

This year, I did not encounter anything of the sort. It seems that with the expiration of the 'myth that Lausanne has expired,' the treaty has ceased to be propaganda material for a certain segment, at least for the time being.

The vast majority of those who view the Treaty of Lausanne as a defeat and claim that it contains humiliating secret clauses—such as prohibiting us from extracting our critical minerals—also argue that the War of Independence was not a real war, but rather a "pseudo-war" consisting of minor skirmishes. None of these claims have any basis in truth.

The War of Independence was a long-term, large-scale war involving significant resource allocation and heavy casualties. It resulted in a flawless victory for the Turkish side. The Treaty of Lausanne, in turn, is a second Turkish victory built upon this flawless victory, guaranteeing Turkey's independence in every sense. The Treaty of Lausanne—with the exception of the restrictions regarding the Straits, which would be amended in 1936—not only lacks any clauses that would hinder Turkey's independence but also completely liquidated the economic privileges granted by the Ottomans to other countries, going beyond the primary goal of the War of Independence, which was "to liberate the homeland from enemy occupation."

Although the Treaty of Lausanne has been evaluated by some as less important, flawed, and detrimental to Turkey than it actually is, it is, in fact, an example of success far above the norms of its time. A common feature of the treaties that ended the First World War is that they were all flawed and far from satisfactory. These treaties created injustices, particularly regarding the territorial integrity of countries; the unrest caused by these injustices turned into crises over time, and these crises led the world into a new world war.

The Treaty of Lausanne, however, is an exception among these treaties. Unlike other treaties signed after the First World War, Lausanne is a treaty that resolved all the problems created by the new war and did not give rise to any new diplomatic issues. The treaty was entirely in Turkey's favor while also satisfying the other signatories, and as I mentioned above, this situation was unusual for those years.

Contrary to the claims of those who find Lausanne flawed, thanks to Lausanne, the Republic of Turkey has never faced the security problems that the Ottoman Empire encountered; its territorial integrity has never been questioned—with the exception of Stalin's demand for Kars and Ardahan in 1946—and its independence has never been under threat. Furthermore, since the capitulations were liquidated with Lausanne, Turks, unlike the Ottomans, gained full control over their own lands, meaning there were no restrictions on extracting minerals such as oil or boron. Thanks to Lausanne, the security problem and the issue of economic dependency that the Ottoman Empire could not solve for years were finally resolved.

The element that makes Lausanne so unique is, as I stated above, that it was built upon a flawless military victory. The borders of the Republic of Turkey were not drawn by decisions made at a table, but with blood spilled on the battlefield. This fact has also made the borders of the Republic of Turkey beyond dispute. The borders determined in other treaties signed after the First World War were often not provided with satisfactory explanations, which led to many new problems, including the Second World War.

Although the Second World War resolved the border problems created by the First World War in Europe, these problems still persist in the Middle Eastern territories that were lost by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The events currently unfolding in Syria and Gaza are a result of the decisions made by the British and, to some extent, the French at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The fact that Turkey has not faced similar problems plays a significant role in the War of Independence being one of the most important wars of the 20th century.

In Lausanne, Turkey achieved the best it could. With the exception of exceptions such as the inability to secure Mosul, which was accepted as part of the National Pact (Misak-ı Milli), the lack of any loopholes in the treaty made it necessary for the smear campaigns to be built upon baseless claims.

Although the reason for these smear campaigns is quite clear, I personally attribute the fact that Lausanne, the pride of Turkey, has become a part of extremely baseless and speculative discussions to the failure of Kemalists to sufficiently grasp the importance of the Treaty of Lausanne.