Editorial: Turkey Still Hasn’t Paid Debt Incurred through Treaty of Sèvres

The first was recognition of the independent Armenian state, which would consist of the vilayets (provinces) of Van, Bitlis, Kharpert, Sivas, Erzerum, Diarbekir and Trebizond, as well as the four sanjaks (districts) of Cilicia: Adana (including Alexandretta), Marash, Sis and Jebel Bereket. Added to these would be the current Armenian republic of the Caucasus: the entire province of Yerevan, the southern part of the province of Tiflis, the southwestern portion of the province of Elisabethpol (Elizavetpol) and the province of Kars. The fourth and fifth paragraphs of the same memorandum mentioned compensation for the massacres, deportations and destruction. And, finally, the country that would protect Armenia had to force the Turks to evacuate from Armenian lands.

It must be said that the leaders of the Versailles Congress — Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson — agreed in principle with the demands of the twin Armenian delegations. Generally speaking, the congress granted the right of self-determination to former subject peoples, ours included.

A great deal of preparatory work was done in the capitals of Europe, prior to the Congress of Sèvres. Private negotiations were conducted by the victorious Allies, in anticipation of dividing up the German and Ottoman spoils among themselves. The smell of oil had also just begun to make its presence felt in the international marketplace, and England was alertly waiting to pounce on the oil wells. Although the war had ended, however, with the creation of a new order, the allied governments, despite the quiet competition going on among them, were inclined to maintain a balance, a permanent security in order to guarantee their economic interests having emerged under a new system.

Thus, this was the overall picture when the peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire was signed in Sèvres on August 10, 1920, 14 months after the Treaty of Versailles. It was signed by all the Allies, except Russia, which was absent, and the representative of the Ottoman Empire. Articles 88-93 of this treaty were devoted to Armenian rights; Turkey was to announce that it recognized Armenia as a free and independent state, as the Allied governments had theretofore recognized it.

Unfortunately, Mustafa Kemal, who had come to the forefront of the Milli (Nationalist) movement, founded the Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) and went on a new diplomatic campaign to gain favor with the major powers, presenting himself to them as a liberal, democratic and friendly political figure. As early as the 1920s, he had already begun to optimally play his role, warning the West that the communist movement would expand and reach the Mediterranean, thus fulfilling the centuries-old dream of Peter the Great and his successors. He added that Europe should take the necessary steps to prevent this advance, confident in the knowledge that Turkey would remain the only bulwark stopping the spread of Soviet power. Kemal knew just how to play his clever diplomatic game, while silently maintaining good relations with Moscow, when the naïve Communists of that period thought that it would easily be possible to Sovietize Turkey too.

And so, while the Armenian people were becoming tipsy over the rights presented to them through the dispositions of the Treaty of Sèvres, Kemalist Turkey had already seized Alexandropol (Giumri) and had decided to complete the final phase of the genocide. It imposed the shameful treaties of Alexandropol, Moscow and Kars, leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923. There Kemal recorded his absolute political triumph, owing to the defense of the allies whom we thought were our friends. In Lausanne, those great powers ripped up the Treaty of Sèvres and gave the Armenian, Greek, Kurdish and Arab lands to the genocidist Turk…proclaiming the agreement the “Lausanne peace treaty.” In this manner, the Treaty of Sevres was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, which became the grave of our national case.