The issue of territorial integrity in the minds of the Turks "From the Treaty of Sevres to the Treaty of Lausanne" (1920-1923)

Abstract

World War I led to the collapse and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of a new political and geographical map in the region. Some nationalities gained their rights and others were deprived of them. For the Kurds, the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) gave hope of establishing self-rule and a semi-independent entity on part of the lands of northern and southern Kurdistan, but because of the Turks’ keenness to preserve the unity of their lands and confront all attempts at division, this dream and hope were aborted. In this regard, the efforts of the Turks began since the War of Independence by rejecting all treaties related to the issue of dividing the lands of the Ottoman Empire, and they adopted various forms of political, diplomatic, and armed struggle until the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. This study attempts to answer the question of why the Turks refused to divide their lands on the one hand and made diplomatic and armed efforts to confront this division on the other hand. This study aims to analyze the Turkish view on the issue of territorial integrity and ways to protect it from the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1919 until the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.