Mosul Issue at the Treaty of Lausanne

Mustafa Kemal sent İsmet Pasha (İnönü) as the chief negotiator for Turkey to the Lausanne Peace Negotiations. However, for that to be possible, İsmet Pasha had to be in the Council of Ministers. In a quick succession of events, he was made the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and was appointed as the head representative for the Turkish side. Turkish Parliament appointed a Board led by İsmet Pasha and consisting of Hasan Bey (Saka), MP for Trabzon, and Dr. Rıza Nur Bey, MP for Sinop. This Board, in turn, set up a delegation of experts to help them at Lausanne.

The chief negotiator for the Lausanne negotiations, İsmet Pasha, in his speech on November 3, 1922, assured the Parliament that they would not deviate from the National Pact. The resulting discussions and proposals were later handed to him by the Speaker of the Parliament as the decision of the Parliament.

* The general headlines to be discussed at Lausanne were as follows:

* Border issues (Iraq border-Mosul, Southern border-Syria, Wester border- Greece and Western Thrace)

* Capitulations,

* Minorities and foreign schools,

* War indemnity,

* Public debts,

* The Straits,

* The Dodecanese Islands,

* Ecumenical Patriarchate.

During the Peace Conference of Lausanne, Great Britain was represented by the then Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon. It is important to note that Lord Curzon was no different than Lloyd George in terms of his anti-Turkish sentiment. And just like George, he was one of the architects of the Treaty of Sévres. Never hesitating to voice his aversion to the Turks even during those years, he frequently said that Turks must definitely be driven out of Istanbul. What Curzon really had in mind was confining the Turks to a small Asian country with Konya as the center, taking control of Istanbul, Thrace, and the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines and creating Britain-dependent countries like 'Kurdistan and Armenia' in East and Southeast Anatolia. What is particularly interesting is the fact that this horrible scenario advocated by Curzon is still one of the most basic goals of the British deep state.

This goal explicitly spelled out by Curzon was found risky by some circles. As a result, the British Cabinet instead suggested that the Turks and the Caliph remain in Istanbul, but that Istanbul should be further weakened. However, Curzon wasn't ready to give up on his impossible dreams:

We are losing an opportunity for which Europe has waited for nearly five centuries, and which may not recur. The idea of respectable and docile Turkish Government at Constantinople, preserved from its hereditary vices by a military cordon of the Powers —including, be it remembered, a permanent British garrison of 10,000-15,000 men— is in my judgment a chimera... But beyond all I regret that the main object for which the war in the East was fought and the sacrifice of Gallipoli endured —namely, the liberation of Europe from the Ottoman Turk— has after an almost incredible expenditure of life and treasure been thrown away in the very hour when it had been obtained, and that we shall have left to our descendants —who knows after how much further sacrifice and suffering?— a task from which we have flinched.³⁴¹

Heavily influenced by the Darwinism scourge created and propagated by the British deep state, Curzon mentioned the so-called 'hereditary vices' of the Turks, referred to races and almost admitted that the real goal behind WWI was 'the liberation of Europe from the Ottoman Turk'.

As mentioned above, the Mosul question proved to be a highly disputed topic between the Turks and the British during the Lausanne negotiations. It should be remembered that the British deep state had the plan of building a 'Kurdish state' in southeast Turkey as part of the Lausanne talks. The establishment of the Turkish-Iraqi border ruined the British deep state plans, but at the same time made Mosul the center of debate. Two countries, which previously had many encounters on battlefields, had to prove their skills on a diplomatic level. The British side, under the auspices of the British deep state, didn't hesitate to resort to many insidious methods.

In order to fully understand the details of this diplomacy war over who would win Mosul, let's have a brief look at the history of the region.