The Other Treaty of Lausanne

Mavi Boncuk |  


THE "OTHER" TREATY OF LAUSANNE: THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND OFFICIAL DEBATE ON TURKISH-AMERICAN RELATIONS by JOHN M. VANDER LIPPE[1]


" On August 6, 1923 Joseph Grew, the American representative at the Lausanne Conference, and İsmet Pasha, the Foreign Minister of the nationalist government of Ankara, signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce in Lausanne, Switzerland. The "other" Treaty of Lausanne was meant to establish diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and the new Turkish Government. Replacing agreements between America and the Ottoman Empire, which were severed when the United States entered World War I in 1917, this new treaty also signified the United States' recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the new Turkish state. 


In Turkey, the treaty with the United States was seen as an extension of the Lausanne Treaty, normalizing relations between the new Turkish Government and the European Powers. But in the United States, the treaty led to an official and public controversy which delayed its ratification, and resulted in its rejection in 1927 by the United States Senate. Stili, the debate surrounding the treaty continued, lasting seven year from its signing in 1923[2] until 1930 when the Senate finally accepted another, yet virtually identical, treaty with the Turkish Republic. "


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[1] John VanderLippe Associate Professor of History; Associate Dean for Faculty & Curriculum, NSSR Profile: Modern Middle East history; modern Turkish history; Modernization and Democracy in the Middle East; American-Middle East relations; Orientalism. Recent Publications: The Politics of Turkish Democracy: İsmet İnönü and the Formation of the Multi-Party System, 1938-1950 (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005), 280pp. Editor-in-Chief, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Volume 36 to Volume 41 (2002-2007).


[2] The Lausanne Treaty, which will be pressed for ratification by the Senate before adjournment of the present session, according to an announcement by Senator Borah, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, following a conference with President Coolidge and Secretary of State Kellogg, is a treaty of commerce and amity between Turkey and the United States signed at Lausanne, August 6, 1923. The treaty was negotiated at the second Lausanne conference by Ismet Pasha, the chief Turkish delegate, and Joseph C. Grew, the American delegate, now Undersecretary of State. On Easter Monday last Bishop Manning transmitted to Senator Borah a protest against ratification of the Lausanne Treaty signed by 110 Episcopal bishops. In a speech before the Associated Press at New York, April 20, Secretary Kellogg fully endorsed the treaty. This brought a protest from former Ambassador James W. Gerard, chairman of the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia. Opponents of the treaty in the Senate are seeking to delay consideration, but Senator Borah has expressed his determination to bring the treaty to a vote during the present session. The United States at present is the only important country which has not yet recognized the new Turkish Republic. The Allies signed a treaty of peace with Turkey at Lausanne, July 24, 1923, to which the United States was not a party, since this country had not been at war with Turkey. The United States was represented, however, at both the first and the second Lausanne conferences.