SEVRES TREATY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 7

SEVRES TREATY

JTURKErs NEW DEMANDS

SUBMITTED TO LONDON

CONFERENCE

DETAILED INFORMATION ASKED FOR. (UKITSD PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) UtSTBUIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received February 26, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, 24th February. A communique states: Sami Bey (Kemaliat representative) read a statement in which the United Turkish Delegation demand: — 1. The 1913 frontiers of Asia Minor, the southern frontier to be fixed in agreement with interested parties, sep-? arating it from the territories inhabited by an Arab majority. 2. On the east the frontier to be.the line between Turkey and Persia as before the war. 3. The frontier between Turkey and Armenia to bo as fixed by the latest treaty between the authorities at Angora and the Government of Erivan. 4. The Greeks, to evacuate Smyrna, which is to return to the full sovereignty of Turkey. : 5. The,", freedom of the Straits under Turkish sovereignty. , 6. The withdrawal of foreign troops from Constantinople and Turkish territory after the ratification of the treaty. 7. Complete financial and economic independence and a mutual valuation of reparation damages. LONDON, 23rd February. BotirHho Turkish delegates submitted practically identical statements, embodying the principle that all countries inhabited by Turks, excluding those inhabited by Arab majorities, should remain part of Turkey. The Turks are willing to concede the rights of minorities, and give freedom, to ail nations regarding navigation of thn Dardanelles, provided Turkish sovereignty is not affected: y Mr. Lloyd George, replying, said the general statements ivere all very well, but Conference required detailed information' as to the changes demanded in the Sevres Treaty. j Sami Bey declared that bis delegationobjected to the clauses felating to Smyrna, Thrace, and the neutral. zone adjoining: the Strains, and to military, cvniiomic, and financial control. Tewfik Pasha's address at the Confer- i tnce showed that til", two Turkish gations are in agreement, except regarding the Armenian frontier.' This is an important advance towards a re-union of the Turks. The reappearance of Emir Feisal at the Conference* 'irritated . the French. Bmii Feisal addressed the Conference on behalf of■■•the Arabs. The French declare it will be impossible to woTk with him, and urge Britain not to persist with the ■enthronement of Feisal or his brother Abdullah. [Under the Treaty of Sevres th* boundaries of Turkey are set out, and tho Ottoman Empire now consists of: Turkey in Europe (1500 square miles),' consisting of the city and district \ of Constantinople, including Lake . Dsi'k&j (the reservoir of the water supply of the city, with a population of about .1,300,COO. European Turkey is separated from- Asia-by the Bosphorus; .at, ■Constantinople and by the Dardanelles (Hellespontj-^aboUt forty miles in length, and. in width varying from oile to four niiles-^-tho only political neighbour being Greece, on the west. The custody of the Dardanelles (the gateway, to the Black Sea), and the navigation of the Straits, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus, is placed under iritetrnatiOTUil control. The Port of Constantinople (from Stefnno to Dolma, Bagtehi) iif European Turkey, and of Haila Pasha, Smyrna, Alexandretta., Haffa, Basra, Trebizbnd, and Batum, in Asia Minor, are declared to be of 'international interest." Turkey in, ABia (140,----000 square miles, estimated .population a,OGO,OCO) comprises the whole of Asia Minor (with exceptions afterwards noted, and extends from the Aegean Sea to about- 41 degrees 30 minutes, east longitude, and from, the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. This area corresponds approximately with Anatolia ("Land of the Rising Sun," or Orient) of the Greek historians, but part of tho ■ former vilayet of Aidin (Smyrna) is assigned to Greece (subject to a plebiscite of the inhabitants within five years from 1B20), while the vilayet of Komia (about 40,000 square miles) is similarly assigned to Italy, and part of Cilicia- (Adana) to France. In addition, Tufirit Armenia is d'etelared' to be autonomous, and Kurdestari is -recognised as independent. All other territories formerly subject to the Ottoman Empire are declared to be- independent of Turkey. The Aegean Islands and the Dodecanese are' transferred to Greece and Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, n.nd the Sudan ale recognised as British Protectorates;' while Syria, the . Great Lebanon, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Haifa and' Arabia ate acknowledged to be independent of Ottoman rule.]