Treaty of Lausanne

110 years ago, Anatolia, Kurdistan, and Armenia were not merely regions torn apart; they represented an open arena for the collapse of the concept of co-existence. What transpired then was not just a series of massacres, but a moment that marked a liberation from the goodness of history—a doomsday moment for neighboring peoples. The state […]

On 12 November 1918, the first group of French troops entered Constantinople to occupy the city under the Mudros Armistice, which had been signed just days earlier on 30 October. French General Després entered the city on horseback. Did the Turks have a problem with the occupation? This is a significant and complex question, but […]

In November 1922, Ismet Pasha Inonu led the Grand National Assembly of Turkey delegation to the Lausanne Conference. The trip included an elite group of politicians, including Reza Nur, an Ottoman physician and minister in Ankara’s government at the time. The country was ruled by two capitals, Ankara, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later named […]

After the First World War, the Kurds, like other non-Turkish nationalities in the Ottoman empire, were presented with what seemed like a golden opportunity to establish their own nation-state. Articles 62 to 64 of the Treaty of Sèvres, signed on 10 August 1920, called for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.[1] However, these articles […]

The following is an exclusive interview with professor Thomas Schmidinger following his presentation during a two day international conference on the centenary of the Lausanne Treaty held in Hasaka, Rojava (Northeastern Syria). The international conference was organized by The Rojava Center for Strategic Studies and held on the 7th-8th of July. Professor Schmidinger is a Political Scientist […]