Turkey's Foreign Relations from 1923-1939

Turkish History

Turkey's foreign relations from 1923-1939

The end of the First World War brought the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Defeated by the Allied Powers, it was divided into smaller pieces. The title Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was abolished in 1922; two years later, the title of (Ottoman) Caliph was abolished, in 1924. With the Treaty of Lausanne, the Republic of Turkey rises on the 29th of October, 1923. Along the beginning of the early Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became its first president, from 1923 to his death in 1938. During his presidential mandate, a lot changes have seen the day, in this essay we’ll talk about the period that was necessary to solve all the problems the treaty of Lausanne left unsolved and in a second we’ll talk about the foreign relations in an international scope. Turkish foreign policy between the two World Wars was greatly influenced by Atatürk’s vision and his personality. Most writers called this era 'The Turkey of Ataturk. According to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's foreign policy objectives were to seek recognition as a sovereign entity, and to seek to enjoy the full benefits of peace.

When the Republic of Turkey was established, the new Turkish state had some goals. The National Pact of 1920, which mainly aimed to create a national Turkish state, also stated the political and military goals of the War of National Liberation. Among them, the complete independence was naturally the second goal of Atatürk's foreign policy. There was no way that a protectorate would be accepted. The third goal was the modernization of the country. Atatürk identified modernization with westernization and used both words synonymously. Turkey’s western-inclined foreign policy began in Atatürk's time in conjunction with efforts at modernization in the cultural sphere.

Turkish statesmen had formulated some principles that were the major foundations of the attempts to achieve these goals. The first principle was realism. Atatürk always kept this in mind when dealing with national and international issues. Because of this realistic policy, Turkey was able to win and preserve its independence.The second principle was allegiance to international law. Here there are several examples which will be given later in details:

The solution of the Mosul Question

Membership of the League of Nations

The Montreux Convention of 1936

"Peace at home, Peace in the World" was the third principle which was greatly illustrated by the Balkan Entente of 1934 and the Saadabad Pact of 1937. As previously stated above, the Western-inclined direction is the fourth principle. Since 1923, this direction will remain the same. This will remain primordial for Turkey not only from a political view, but also from an economical one. For example Turkey is a member of NATO and is also currently trying to become member of the European Council.

The Turkish Grand National Assembly endorsed the Treaty of Lausanne which was signed on July 24, 1923. “Turkey was the only defeated nation of the First World War to be able to negotiate peace on its own terms and won almost all its demands from the Entente. Also, The Lausanne Treaty was the only post-war agreement which depended on mutual negotiations”. The most important point is that the laic Turkish state was acknowledged by the international community.

Nevertheless, the Treaty of Lausanne left several problems between Turkey and the Entente Powers; the Mosul question, the problem of the Straits, the Hatay question, to mention a few. The strategic importance of Turkey began to increase because of its borders created after the Lausanne Treaty.

Before being able to establish normal relations with the powerful nations, Turkey needed to solve problems in foreign policy, and so almost all the institutions of the Ottoman Empire were abolished during the five years following Lausanne; the Sultanate and Caliphate, the Islamic Law and educational system, and the Arabic alphabet. Afterwards they started to apply a very realistic foreign policy. Wa can notice some evidences of this "realism" in Turkish foreign policy.

First, the period from 1923 to 1932 has been the period where the issues left unresolved by the Lausanne treaty were elucidated. One example would be the relation Turkey and Greece maintained. After signing the treaty, the Allied forces left Istanbul. And with this came a massive emigration of Christians out of Istanbul to Greece. The real problem started when the Greek minority wished to stay in Istanbul. Approximately one and a half million Greeks were obliged to leave Turkey for Greece and about half a million Turks had to leave Greece for Turkey (it is important to keep in mind that the population exchange was based on religious grounds, thus the exchange was officially that of Christians for Muslims). There was some exceptions to this exchange, including areas such as Istanbul (named Constantinople at the time), Gökçeada’s islands (Imbros) and Bozcaada’s islands (Tenedos), where the Greek minority was allowed to stay, and Western Thrace, whose Muslim minority was also allowed to stay.

Additionally, there was a great attention given to the Mosul Question by Turkish Foreign Policy makers from 1923 to 1926. The Mosul Question was a territorial conflict between Turkey and the United Kingdom ( this area will, later on, become part of Iraq) over the proprietary rights of the bygone Ottoman Mosul Vilayet. To be more accurate, the