ANKARA (Anadolu) – A
century ago, on July 24, countries around the world acknowledged Turkey as an independent and sovereign nation with the historic signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty at the Rumine Palace in the lakeside Swiss city.
Months of intense negotiations had led up to the momentous event under the Lausanne Peace Conference, held at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, situated on the picturesque shores of Lake Leman in Lausanne.
In a book commemorating the hotel’s 150 years of history, numerous details about the momentous conference are revealed, shedding light on why Switzerland was chosen as the venue, the intricacies of the negotiations, and the ultimate international recognition of a new nation.
The Lausanne Peace Conference commenced in November 1922.
The book, released by the hotel, explains that Lausanne was selected as the venue through a process of elimination.
“The Turks wanted the conference to take place in Smyrna (Izmir), which they had just liberated from the Greek army, but this was out of the question. London and Paris were also excluded since Britain and France have widely diverging views on the issues to be discussed. Venice was ruled out as it would have given Italy’s new dictator Mussolini a golden opportunity to act as chair,” it explained.
Geneva, despite being home to the League of Nations, the predecessor of the UN, was vetoed by the U.S. and Soviet Union, “powerful political observers of the negotiations,” according to the book.
Eventually, Britain proposed Lausanne, and it was preferred over the Turkish side’s suggestion of another Swiss city, Lugano.
During the conference, the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel played host to the British, Japanese, Turkish, and American delegations. The French and Italians were accommodated at the Lausanne Palace, while the Greeks stayed at the Hotel Savoy.
“While some of the participating nations came to Lausanne with the aim of dismantling the Ottoman Empire, and redrawing the map of Asia Minor, the conference had a quite different, and unexpected outcome: the birth, and international recognition of a new country, Turkey,” the book said.
The official delegates, numbering 184, were joined by numerous press correspondents, guest speakers, and support personnel involved in the conference’s day-to-day operations.
The book describes the conference’s rhythm as akin to that of World War I, oscillating between negotiations, crises, and conflicts. Ultimately, the Turkish victory marked a significant turning point in the numerous revisions of the previous Treaty of Versailles, as one of the nations defeated in 1918 reasserted itself on the world stage.
After talks were adjourned indefinitely in January 1923, they resumed in April of the same year and concluded in July, solidifying the Lausanne Peace Treaty.