Switzerland... The Kurdish community is demonstrating in Geneva, rejecting the Treaty of Lausanne

Switzerland... The Kurdish community is demonstrating in Geneva, rejecting the Treaty of Lausanne

Jul 23 2023

ARK News... The Kurdish community in Switzerland, on July 22, 2023, organized a demonstration in rejection of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Thousands of the Kurdish community gathered in Geneva to express their rejection of the Treaty of Lausanne, raising the Kurdish flag.

Many speeches were made on this occasion.

On the twenty-fourth of July 2023, 100 years will pass since the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in the Swiss city of Lausanne, which aborted the Treaty of Sevres and the establishment of the state of Kurdistan.

Despite the decision taken in the Treaty of Sevres, which was concluded in 1920, to build a state for the Kurds in the south and north of Kurdistan, the Lausanne Agreement, which was signed by Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Japan on the one hand, and Turkey on the other, dropped the decision on July 24, 1923.

Articles 62, 63, 64 of the Treaty of Severs mentioned the establishment of the state of Kurdistan, which states:

Article 62: A committee consisting of three members appointed by the British, French and Italian governments respectively and with its headquarters in Istanbul, will draw up a plan within three months from the date of implementation of the Treaty for the autonomy of the areas inhabited by a Kurdish majority that lie east of the Euphrates and south of the southern borders of Armenia, and north of Turkey's borders with Syria and Iraq. The plan should include ensuring the rights of the Assyrian-Chaldean minorities and other religious minorities inhabiting the area.

Article 63: The Turkish government agrees to implement the decisions of the committee mentioned in Article 62 within three months of being informed of its decisions.

Article 64: If it appears that the majority of the Kurdish people, as specified in Article 62, has shown a desire for independence from Turkey within one year, and if the Council of the League of Nations considers that the Kurds are capable of enjoying this independence, then Turkey will agree to implement the recommendations of the Council, and to give up all its rights and possessions in this region.

But because of Turkey's rejection of that treaty, a new agreement was concluded, known as the Treaty of Lausanne in southern Switzerland, which canceled the Treaty of Sevres and thus the establishment of the state of Kurdistan was retracted. According to the Treaty of Lausanne, most of the Kurdish areas that were under the French mandate were also given to Turkey, in addition to granting Turkey some areas that had been given to Greece in the Treaty of Sevres.

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