Impact Of The San Remo Terms On Turkey And British Polıcy

Abstract

After the First World War, the victorious Allied powers were unable to dispose of the Turkish question despite months of deliberation. The rivalry of the Allİed powers, particularly of Great Britain and France, över the lands of the old Ottoman Empire, the Greek occupation of Smyma in May 1919 and the subsequent rise of the Nationalİst Movement in the interior under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal *1 which resisted the post-war Allied adjustments and defied the inability of the Ottoman govemment to save the country from foreign invasİon, ali combined to make such a treaty impossible for the Allies. When anti-Nationalist Damad Ferid Paşa, the Grand Vizier and the Sultan's son-in-law, was İn power on 5 April 1920 for the fourth time, the British were confident that the Ottoman government in Constantinople was önce again in their camp. In British eyes, Damad Ferid was perhaps more sincerely convinced than any other statesman of the first rank that Turkey’s sole hope of salvatioıı lay in a good understanding with Great Britain. 2 Now, İt was time for the Allies to complete the Turkish treaty and force Damad Ferid to sign it. The Supreme council met at San Remo on 18 April with such a purpose in mind.

Keywords

• Turkey
• British
• Polıcy

References

1. Mustafa Kemal Paşa had been the Inspector- General of the Ottoman Third Anny slatioııed in Samsoun since April 1919.
2. Olcay, Osman, Sevres Andlaşmasına Doğru, Ankara 1980.
3. S.L. Mcray and Olcay, Osman, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun Çöküş Belgeleri, Ankara 1997.
4. P.C. Helmreich, Froııı Paris to Sevres: The Partition of the Ottoman Empire at the Peace Conference of 1919-1920, Ohio 1974.
5. B.C. Busch, Mudros to Lausanne: Britain's Frontier in Wcst Asla, 1918-1923, New York 1976.
6. L. Ricldell, Inlİmate Diary of the Peace Conference and After 1918-1923, London 1933.
7. H.H. Cıımming, Franco-British Rivalry in the Post-War Near East: The Decline of French Influence, London 1938.
8. D. Lloyd George, Memoîrs of the Peace Conference, vol. II, New Haven 1939.

9. E.L. Knudsen, Great Britain, Constantinople, and the Turkish Peace Treaty 1919-1922, London 1987.
10. M. Kent (ed), The Great Ptnvers and the End of the Ottoman Empire, London 1984.
11. C.J. Lowc and M.L, Dockrill, The Mirage ol‘Power, vol. II, London 1972.
12. Br. Doc. XIII: 59, First Series, ed. by R. Butler and J.P.T. Bury, London 1963.
13. M. Onar, Atatürk'ün Kurtuluş Savaşı Yazışmaları, vol. II, document no. 835 (25 April 1920), Ankara 1995.
14. M.L. Sinith, lordan Vision: Greece in Asia Minör 1919-1922, London 1973.
15. R. Blake, The Unkncnvn Prime Minister: The Life and Times of Andreıv Bonar Law 1858-1923, London 1955.
16. Mustafa Kemal, A Speeeh delivered by Ghazi Mustapha Kemal, Octobar 1927, Leipzig 1929,