TURKEY'S CLAIMS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 240, 23 September 1922, Page 3

TURKEY'S CLAIMS.

THE NATIONAL PACT. According to a Constantinople message printed yesterdr the Turkish papers agree that the freedom of the Straits must be respected. The principal Nationalist organ says information from a. semi-official source leads it to believe that if necessary sacrifices will be made within the limits of the National pact to put an end to the present situation, but it is absolutely impossible in the matter of the Straits to go beyond the National pact. The terms for which the Turkish Nationalists are fighting are embodied in a brief document called the “National Paet.” which was drafted and adopted by the Grand National Assembly not lung alter its convocation at Angora in 1919. The clauses of the pact (which have not hitherto been printed in New Zealand) are as follows :— THE TERMS OF THE PACT. 1. “The Ottoman Empire abandons claims to territories inhabited by Arab majorities, but considers the other parts of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by a population united by religion, race, and aspirations as an inseparable whole.” (1.e.. Angora claims to retain all territories inhabited by non-Arab Otto, manman Moslem majorities; e.g., not only Turks, but Kurds.) 2. “The Ottoman Empire leaves the status of Western Thrace to be decided by its inhabitants.” (Western Thrace was ceded in 1913 Iby Turkey to Bulgaria, and in 1919 by Bulgaria to the Allies, who afterwards assigned it to Greece. The majority of the population consists of Turkish and Bulgarian Moslems.) 3. ‘‘The Ottoman Empire accepts and supports the rights of minorities in accordance with the principles decided by the Powers (in the case of the defeated or newly created States in Europe), hoping that Moslems living in neighbouring countries will benefit by the same rights.” 4. “The Ottoman Empire demands the security of Constantinople and the Sea of Marmara, and respects the decision of the interested Powers that the Bosporus and the Dardanelles shall be opened for commerce and communications.” 5. “The Ottoman Empire accepts a plebiscite in Kars, Ardahan. and Batum.” (Districts ceded by Turkey to Russia in 1878 and retroceded by Russia to Turkey in the peace of Brestlitovsk. The Turkish authorities took a plebiscite there, under Turkish military occupation, and after the flight of the Christian element, in 1918. It is not clear whether the National pact “accepts” this plebiscite, or one to be taken in the future under fairer conditions.) 6. “The Ottoman Empire insists that national and economic development and the administration of the country on modern principles are impossible without a recognition of the Empire’s complete independence and freedom, and considers this a fundamental necessity for its existence.” (1.e., the “Capitulations” must be abolished.) AN ANALYSIS. Those six articles are worth analysis. Articles 1,2, and 5 are territorial, while 3, 4. and 6 deal with the power of the Ottoman Government in the territories it hope* to retain. The must important territorial article is obviously 1. Under it the Turkish Nationalists reclaim the Smyrna zone and Eastern Thrace, in both of which they maintained that an impartial investigation would reveal the existence of an Ottoman Moslem majority. The territorial issue between Turkey and Greece, in which the Powers will have to intervene, is expressed in this formula. But the question of the frontier between Turkey and Mesopotamia is implicit in it, too, and the destinies of Eastern Thrace affect the freedom of the Straits. The other two territorial articles are of minor importance to Britain, and can probably be settled directly between the parties concerned. As regards Bulgaria and the JSgean, it is believed that the Angora Government would prefer to see it in the hands ot Bulgaria rather than Greece, but that they will put forward no claim to it themselves. Being anxious to secure their European frontiers by a permanent good understanding with Bulgaria, they do not wish to stand between her and her access to the open sea. As regards Kars. Ardahan, and Batum, it appears that, under the auspices of the Soviet Government of Russia, the Soviet Government of Armenia have consented to cede Kars and Ardahan to Turkey, but Turkey has abandoned her claim to Batum, which is the only Black Sea port for the three Republics of Trans-Caucasia. RIGHTS OF MINORITIES. There remain the three articles dealing with the sovereign Powers of which (4) “Freedom of the Straits” and (6) “Capitulations” concern British interests directly, while (3) “Rights of Minorities” does not. But Article 3 is at least as important as the others, since it involves questions of human life on a large scale, and the honour, if not the interest, of the Allies is concerned in it. The proper salve to '1 urkish pride, said a correspondent oi the “Manchester Guardian,” would be to institute identical guarantees of a practical kind for minorities in several Near Eastern countries, and this might not prove such a formidable undertaking as it looks at first sight. If reciprocity of minority rights and guarantees could overcome the obstacles created by national pride it would also be recommended by the national interest in cases in which two nations held hostages, in the shape of minorities, in each other’s territories. For instance, an agreement between Turkey and Greece or Turkey and Armenia to grant reciprocal rights, secured by identical sanctions, to Christians in Turkish territory and Moslems in the territory of Turkey’s Christian neighbours, ought not to be impossible, if it were negotiated as part of a general settlement tf’fih the good offices of the Powers. We have a strong obligation to do everything we can for the solution of this of minorities. which has caused such immense suffering among both Christian and Moslem populations, and has been rendered more acute than it need have been by the Oriental policy of Western Europe.