Swiss American Historical Society Review
Keywords
SAHS Review, Treaty of Lausanne, Soviet diplomat's assassination
Abstract
The year 2023 marks the centennial of the Treaty of Lausanne. This treaty that many readers may not have heard of created the Republic of Turkey. More than that, it was a conference held in Switzerland where the Great Powers created new borders and made decisions about refugees, access to what are known as the “Turkish Straits” and led to British and French control of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. The new mandate system showed that colonialism was still the mindset of most Europeans, along with a fear of Russia, which had become the Soviet Union. The conference and treaty that are being reexamined 100 years later had a great impact on Turkey, the Middle East, and especially Armenians, Kurds, and Greeks. It led to the rise of Turkey as a major global power that would join NATO three years after it was formed in 1949, and continues to play a major role in international affairs. The Treaty of Lausanne marked the birth of a new nation and essentially European colonial rule in most of the Middle East for several decades. It was the last treaty where the major European powers dominated and made decisions on the future of a non-Western state. In addition, the assassination of a Soviet diplomat by a Swiss-Russian man during the conference led to decades of non-relations between the new country of the Soviet Union and the Swiss Confederation.
Recommended Citation
Marabello, Thomas Quinn
(2023)
"The Centennial of the Treaty of Lausanne: Turkey, Switzerland, the Great Powers and a Soviet Diplomat’s Assassination,"
Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 59:
No.
3, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss3/4