The Treaty of Sevres
The Treaty of Svres was signed with the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War One. The terms of the Treaty of Svres were harsh and many in the Ottoman Empire were left angered and embittered by their treatment. The Treaty of Svres was signed on August 10 th 1 !0 after more than fifteen months was spent on drawing it up. "reat #ritain$ %taly and &ran'e signed it for the vi'torious Allies. (ussia was e)'luded from the pro'ess and by 1 !0 Ameri'a had withdrawn into a poli'y of isolation. The Treaty of Svres territorially 'arved up the *Si'+ ,an of Europe-. #ritain and &ran'e had already de'ided what would happen to the area generally referred to as the *,iddle East-. #ritain too+ effe'tive possession and 'ontrol of .alestine while &ran'e too+ over Syria$ /ebanon and some land in southern Anatolia. East and West Anatolia were de'lared areas of &ren'h influen'e. This had already been de'ided some three years before the Treaty of Svres in the se'ret Sy+es0.i'ot Agreement of 1 11. #ritain also too+ over %ra2 and was given very generous oil 'on'essions there via the #ritish0'ontrolled Tur+ish .etroleum 3ompany$ later renamed the %ra2 .etroleum 3ompany. The 4ingdom of 5e6a7 was given formal international re'ognition as an independent +ingdom. With ,e''a and ,edina as its most important 'ities$ the 4ingdom of 5e6a7 was 100$000 s2uare miles in si7e with a total population of 180$000. Armenia was re'ognised as a separate sovereign state. Smyrna was put under effe'tive 'ontrol of "ree'e while te'hni'ally remaining within the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Svres also gave the people of Smyrna the 'han'e of a plebis'ite on whether they wished to 6oin "ree'e as opposed to remaining in the Ottoman Empire. This plebis'ite would be overseen by the /eague of 9ations. "ree'e was also given Thra'e. The :ode'anese %slands were formally handed over to %taly who was also given influen'e in the 'oastal region of Anatolia. The :ardanelles Straits was made an international waterway with the Ottoman Empire having no 'ontrol over it. 3ertain ports near to 3onstantinople were de'lared ;free 7ones< as they were deemed to be of international importan'e. The Treaty of Svres failed to deal with the issue of a 4urdistan. There was an initial
agreement on the boundaries of a 4urdistan but nationalist 4urds re6e'ted this as it failed to in'lude a region 'alled =an. The issue ended with some 4urds living in Tur+ey where they were deemed by the government there as being Tur+s and some in northwest %ra2 where they were deemed to be %ra2is. /i+e the other defeated 3entral .owers$ the Ottoman Empire had military restri'tions imposed on it. The Ottoman Army was limited to 80$000 men. An air for'e was forbidden and the navy was limited to thirteen boats > si) s'hooners and seven torpedo boats. The Treaty of Svres also 'ontained 'lauses that allowed the Allies to supervise these military terms. The finan'ial 'onse2uen'es of the Treaty of Svres e2ualled those of the Treaty of =ersailles in terms of severity? however$ the new Weimar "ermany was allowed to run her own e'onomy > though the terms of =ersailles obviously impa'ted this. The Ottoman Empire had the 'ontrol of its finan'es and e'onomy ta+en away from her and handed over to the Allies. This in'luded the 'ontrol of the Ottoman #an+$ 'ontrol over imports and e)ports$ 'ontrol of the national budget$ 'ontrol over finan'ial regulations$ re2uests for loans and reform of the ta) system. The Allies 'ontrolled even debt repayments. One of the terms of this was that only &ran'e$ %taly and "reat #ritain 'ould be debt bondholders. The Ottoman Empire was also forbidden from having any e'onomi' 'ollaboration with "ermany$ Austria$ 5ungary and #ulgaria and all the e'onomi' assets of these four states were li2uidated within the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Svres also gave the Allies the right to reform the ele'toral system of the Ottoman Empire. Those deemed guilty of engaging in ;barbarous warfare< were re2uired to be handed over to the Allies. The "rand =i7ier$ Ahmed .asha$ of the Empire planned to ratify the Treaty of Svres but was fa'ed with a rebellion by the Tur+ish nationalist leader ,ustafa 4emal. .asha-s defeat meant that 4emal refused to sign the Treaty of Svres$ whi'h he viewed as una''eptable with regards to its terms that dire'tly impa'ted Tur+ey. 4emal would not 'ountenan'e the :ardanelles Straits as being anything other than Tur+ish and saw no reason why ports in Tur+ey itself should be deemed ;free 7ones<. 4emal believed that the leaders of the Ottoman Empire had ta+en the people of Tur+ey into World War One and that the Tur+ish people should not be punished for the a'tions of their former leaders. 5is stand meant that the vi'torious Allies and the newly 'reated Tur+ey had to start treaty negotiations afresh.
