Understanding the Treaty of Lausanne through the eyes of a Turk who immigrated from Greece

If you allow me, I would first like to state my opinion very briefly regarding the Treaty of Lausanne, which was signed on July 24, 1923.

The Treaty of Lausanne is the founding treaty of the Republic of Turkey. It is a document of honor written in blood, a title deed to the homeland for the Turks of Anatolia and Rumelia, who faced the danger of being left without a state and emerged victorious from a life-or-death struggle.

In the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "This treaty is a document that announces the collapse of a great attempt at annihilation that had been prepared against the Turkish nation for centuries and was thought to have been completed with the Treaty of Sèvres."

One feature of the Treaty of Lausanne in terms of Turkish-Greek relations is that it is the registration of the bankruptcy of Greece's Megali Idea goal in Anatolia.

The Treaty of Lausanne has a special importance in terms of Turkish-Greek relations.

Article 45 of the treaty states: "The rights conferred by the provisions of the present Section on the non-Moslem minorities of Turkey will be similarly conferred by Greece on the Moslem minority in her territory."

Although Greece accepts this provision solely for the Turks in Western Thrace, it does not implement it for them either.

The Turks of Western Thrace have many problems, ranging from education to zoning, from cultural rights to identity issues, and from economic to political rights. The word "Turk" is banned in Greece.

According to official Greek policy, the "Turkish" minority is referred to as "Muslim."

However, the relevant article also covers the right to Turkish cultural identity and organization in the context of the rights granted to minorities. The European Court of Human Rights makes rulings in this direction, but Greece does not implement them.

On the other hand, the Turkish presence in Greece is not limited to Western Thrace. Today, there is also a Turkish community numbering over 9,000 in the Dodecanese, primarily in Rhodes and Kos.

The Greek authorities, who took possession of the islands in 1947, did not grant "minority" status to our kinsmen on the grounds that the Dodecanese were under Italian administration when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923.

However, this thesis contradicts not only the provision in Article 45 of the Treaty of Lausanne but also other international treaties signed by Greece, such as the "Protocol No. 3 attached to the 1913 Athens Treaty, the 10 August 1920 Treaty of Sèvres with Greece, the 30 January 1923 Exchange of Populations Convention, the 1926 Athens and 1930 and 1933 Ankara Treaties, and the 1947 Paris Treaty."

Finally, the ruling of Article 15 of the 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties by the International Court of Justice is also in this direction. The ruling stated once again that the concept of "status of the territory" should be interpreted to include not only the territory at the time the treaty was made but also the territory subsequently acquired by the country.

In short, one of the most binding provisions regarding the protection and development of the cultural identity of Turks living in Greece is Article 45 of the Treaty of Lausanne. As mentioned, since the Treaty of Lausanne, along with the aforementioned treaties, was made valid for "all of Greece's territory," it is still in force today and is also binding with respect to the Dodecanese.

What does the Treaty of Lausanne mean through the eyes of an immigrant Turk?

With the Treaty of Lausanne, signed at the end of the War of Independence, the lives of the Turks of Rhodes and Kos were secured, in addition to them living on the islands with their cultural identities for a time.

If the Greeks, who were used as a battering ram with the support of imperial states in this war, had not been defeated, the future of the Turkish lineage on the islands would not have been in question.

The victory of the War of Independence was met with great joy by the Turks of Rhodes and Kos. This joy stemmed not only from the liberation of the Motherland but also from the prevention of possible hostile attacks against them, especially from the Greeks.

Because the image of the Turk among the Greeks living on the islands is problematic and negative in many respects.

If you wish, my late father Abdurrahman Kaymakçı had a memory about this:

"The deterioration of the relations between us Island Turks and the Greeks began with Greece's landing in İzmir on May 15, 1919, under the guidance of the countries called the Great Powers. By 1921, the Greeks had reached as far as Polatlı. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey was about to make the decision to leave Ankara.

It was in those days that negative changes began to sprout in the behavior of the Greeks in Rhodes towards the Turks.

I was a child of about 8 years old in those years and I had experienced such an incident: While I was joking with a Greek friend named Dimitri, he suddenly grabbed my ear and started pulling it. At first, I thought it was a joke, but when it started to hurt, I asked, 'Why are you pulling my ear and hurting me?'

Dimitri said, 'Hey Turk, the Greek armies are now in front of Polatlı. Ankara will fall soon. We will grab Kemal's (Atatürk) ear and finish his job. Then it will be your turn. Be warned.'

It was impossible to think of this behavior of the Greek child independently of the conversations their family had in their homes. The child had said these words because he did not know the concept of secrecy."

In my opinion, this behavior of the Greek child towards my father originated from the negative and problematic Turkish Image in the Greek perception.

Unfortunately, this image continues to be passed down from generation to generation in a way that some of us do not even notice today.

It is possible to say the following in terms of Turkish-Greek relations.

The first is this: Greece does not currently implement Article 45 of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Second: The Turks living in Rhodes, Kos, and the Dodecanese have problems such as citizenship, the right to learn Turkish, religious worship, an environment of hatred and oppression, foundations, and the protection of the cultural heritage left by the Ottoman Turks. A cultural genocide is being carried out on the islands.

Third: The Aegean islands have been militarized in violation of treaties. The demand to annex the whole of Cyprus continues. These are not enough. For some time now, Greece has announced that it plans to organize two marine parks, one in the Aegean Sea and the other in the Ionian Sea, in areas whose ownership has not been transferred to it by international treaties.

All of these are indicators that Greece has not given up on implementing its Megali Idea policy.

Developing friendship and cooperation between the Turkish and Greek peoples is important.

However, this sincere desire is not the opposite of voicing the problems of the Turks of Western Thrace, Rhodes, and Kos. Establishing the friendship between Turkey and Greece on solid foundations primarily requires voicing and discussing the issues that are problematic in the relations.