Treaty of Sèvres

That province, one recalls, had been promised to Italy.

On the whole, however, the peace treaty of Sèvres, which the Allies compelled the Turkish government to sign on August tenth, nineteen twenty, was a mosaic of the secret treaties, a document in which imperialism was writ large.

The Ottoman Empire was to be shorn of its Arab possessions: Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the intervening deserts; and Hejaz—now independent, with a ruler salaried by England—and other Turkish provinces in the Arabian Peninsula.

These, it was planned, would be divided between France and England.

And the Dodecanese, the group of islands occupied by Italy since nineteen twelve, were, by a separate Graeco-Italian treaty, to be transferred to Greece.

What was left of Turkey—most of Anatolia plus Constantinople—was to be saddled with such thoroughgoing Allied financial and administrative supervision that it could hardly be called independent.

The treaty of Sèvres, however, was torn up by Kemal Pasha, a brilliant and daring Turkish officer, who gathered about him a patriotic army of Turkish nationalists, drove the Greeks out of Smyrna, and practically expelled the French from Cilicia north of Syria, regained eastern Thrace, reconquered Turkish Armenia, deposed the sultan, transferred the Turkish capital to Ankara in the inaccessible heart of the Anatolian highlands, and declared Turkey a republic, an independent and progressive nation.

This nationalist revolution, accomplished in the years nineteen twenty-one through nineteen twenty-three, made the treaty of Sèvres a dead letter and necessitated a new peace conference between the Allies and Turkey.

It is a war that has been made unavoidable by the alternative, and the alternative is a document signed in Paris in the spring that would carve Anatolia into pieces the way a butcher works a carcass, each portion going to a different table.

The Treaty of Sèvres has not yet been formally imposed.

That will come in August, but its shape is already known, has been known for months, leaked and rumored, and then confirmed in increasingly precise detail.

And the shape of it is this: Greek administration over Smyrna and its hinterland, an Armenian state in the east, an autonomous Kurdistan carved from the southeast, French zones of influence in Cilicia, Italian claims along the southern coast, and an Ottoman rump state in central Anatolia so hedged with foreign financial and military oversight that it would be Ottoman in name only.

And he will need every ounce of institutional authority he can gather because the enemies arrayed against this fledgling Ankara government are not one enemy but several, and they do not attack from one direction but from many.

To the east, Armenian forces backed in aspiration if not always in material support by the allied powers, hold territory that the Ankara government considers Turkish soil.

Ancestral Anatolian ground now claimed under the Treaty of Sèvres for an independent Armenian state.

To the south, French forces occupy Cilicia, an irregular resistance there.

Okay? Um, however, what Jackson, uh, was concerned about, as he indicated and as I just explained, was twofold.

It was, you know, what, what's the supranational authority, the institutional authority, quite literally, to assert jurisdiction over these men? Secondly, what is the precedent? Well, and that's an interesting case, okay? Because this, uh, this Jacob Robinson, and I'm sure I'm butchering his pronunciation, forgive me, um, he handed, uh, he handed Jackson a copy of the Treaty of Sèvres.

Okay? Or Sèvres, but I believe it's Sèvres.

Now, what was the Treaty of Sèvres? And this is gonna be a little bit tangential, but it's fundamental to understanding Nuremberg, okay? The Treaty of Sèvres, in the, in, in the Great War, in World War I, the Ottoman Empire was a major combatant state, okay? Um, [coughs] and going back, uh, those that don't know, and I'm not assuming anybody's dumb or anything, but frankly, they don't teach history anymore.

Ottoman Empire was the Turkish Empire, okay, in, in all but name.

And it was for, it, it was for a thousand, literally a millennia, it was, um, it was the, uh, it, it was, it was the political authority of Dar al-Islam, okay? Covered a huge amount of territory, um, and it, and zenith had been incredibly powerful, okay? And even though it was very, like, rotting from within, by the time of the Great War, it was a major, uh, geostrategic actor, okay? Um, and, uh, traditionally, they'd been allied with the, the German, uh, states, which is interesting, but that's a subject for another, uh, another day.

But the Treaty of Sèvres, uh, it, it's, it, it, that was the peace treaty that was imposed upon, initially, uh, upon the Ottoman Empire, okay? And, uh, among other things, uh, one of its primary purposes was to lay down penalties on the Turks for their, uh, extermination of, uh, Armenians, ethnic, uh, Armenians during World War I.

Between 1915 and 1917, people bandy different numbers, but even [coughs] the, the lowest credible estimate, you know, there was ov-over a million Armenians were, were just slaughtered, okay? It's-- The way to think about it, um, and I'm not being flippant, I'm just trying to provide an example that people might relate to better.

But it was a sense of betrayal on the West, which was not necessarily felt regarding the relationship, again, with the crucial states that happened.

The Treaty of Sevres comes about after World War I and codifies not only the map and the arrangements of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, but also blends in the Balfour Declaration, which then shapes and creates the Middle East as we understand it today, geographically, politically, and with both borders and conflicts, arguably, that are still with us.

But you made a point that I'd like to then ask you about.

Hassan, you alluded to what seemed to be this transformation that happens between, if I can use the terms, the old Middle East, one that was defined more unfortunately by conflict, but also from cultural epicenters in places like Egypt and Syria.

That province, one recalls, had been promised to Italy.

On the whole, however, the Peace Treaty of Sèvres, which the Allies compelled the Turkish government to sign on August 10, 1920, was a mosaic of the secret treaties, a document in which imperialism was writ large.

The Ottoman Empire was to be shorn of its Arab possessions, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the intervening deserts and Hejaz, now independent with a ruler salaried by England, and other Turkish provinces in the Arabian Peninsula.

These, it was planned, would be divided between France and England.

And the Dodecanesia, the group of islands occupied by Italy since 1912, were, by a separate Greco-Italian treaty, to be transferred to Greece.

What was left of Turkey, most of Anatolia plus Constantinople, was to be saddled with such thoroughgoing Allied financial and administrative supervision that it could hardly be called independent.

The Treaty of Sèvres, however, was torn up by Kemal Pasha, a brilliant and daring Turkish officer, who gathered about him a patriotic army of Turkish nationalists, drove the Greeks out of Smyrna, and practically expelled the French from Cilicia, north of Syria, regained Eastern Thrace, reconquered Turkish Armenia, deposed the Sultan, transferred the Turkish capital to Ankara, in the inaccessible heart of the Anatolian highlands, and declared Turkey a republic, an independent and progressive nation.

This nationalist revolution, accomplished in the years 1921 through 1923, made the Treaty of Sèvres a dead letter and necessitated a new peace conference between the Allies and Turkey.

That's happening at this time.

So yeah, the Treaty of Sevres is basically a dismembering of what is left of the Ottoman Empire.

We always like to say, pull over, pull up a map at this point in the show if you want to.

Essentially, you're going to have the remnants of the Ottoman Empire be in what is now what would be mostly referred to as Anatolia.

By

the way, let's also point out a couple more things.

Number one, the initial Treaty of Sevres had allowed for the Ottoman Empire to hand over for prosecution, people that had been involved in the Armenian genocide.

And the Treaty of Lausanne does not.

That province, one recalls, had been promised to Italy.

On the whole, however, the peace Treaty of Sèvres, which the Allies compelled the Turkish government to sign on August tenth, nineteen twenty, was a mosaic of the secret treaties, a document in which imperialism was writ large.

The Ottoman Empire was to be shorn of its Arab possessions, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the intervening deserts and Hejaz, now independent with a ruler salaried by England and other Turkish provinces in the Arabian Peninsula.

These, it was planned, would be divided between France and England.

And the Dodecanese, the group of islands occupied by Italy since nineteen twelve, were, by a separate Greco-Italian treaty, to be transferred to Greece.

What was left of Turkey, most of Anatolia plus Constantinople, was to be saddled with such thoroughgoing Allied financial and administrative supervision that it could hardly be called independent.

The Treaty of Sèvres, however, was torn up by Kemal Pasha, a brilliant and daring Turkish officer who gathered about him a patriotic army of Turkish nationalists, drove the Greeks out of Smyrna, and practically expelled the French from Cilicia, north of Syria; regained Eastern Thrace; reconquered Turkish Armenia; deposed the sultan; transferred the Turkish capital to Ankara in the inaccessible heart of the Anatolian highlands; and declared Turkey a republic, an independent and progressive nation.

This nationalist revolution, accomplished in the years nineteen twenty-one through nineteen twenty-three, made the Treaty of Sèvres a dead letter and necessitated a new peace conference between the Allies and Turkey.