DISCUSSIONS ON “MANDATING ISTANBUL AND STRAITS” AT LONDON AND SAN REMO CONFERENCES
LONDRA VE SAN REMO KONFERANSLARINDA “İSTANBUL VE BOĞAZLAR MANDASI TARTIŞMALARI

Author : Kadir KASALAK
Number of pages : 115-124

Abstract

The future of Istanbul and the Straits which caused great controversies at Paris, London and San Remo conferences was very important to understand correctly the clash of interests of the great powers in international relations in this period and their attitudes and intentions towards the Turkish and Islamic world. These pseudo-debates can be accepted as a criterion in terms of providing an insight on today's events, although we avoid a generalization. Entente powers and particularly the United States came together on 18 January 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference to establish a "New World Order" . Discussions in this conference were formed according to the wishes of the USA, England and France; Italy and Japan could not play a very active role. The London and San Remo conferences in a sense, became a phase and implementation of the results of Paris Peace Conference. The Turkish intellectuals and administrators closely followed the discussions in these conferences; they mainly discussed the “mandate system” and the systems to be implemented on the Ottoman State. Some Turkish intellectuals and administrators, concerned with the fear that their independence could not be sustained, had discussed for more than two years on bolshevism, mandate and patronage. We must state that the most important thing in the main factors of making these discussions was the establishment of the mandate system and discussion of it continuously at London, San Remo and Paris Peace Conferences, conflicting interests especially among the entente powers, government changes and the establishment of the Soviet administration. In this presentation, from the main ideas mentioned above, we will examine the discussions on mandate governance which was not solved at Paris Peace Conference. We will also examine London and San Remo Conferences’ discussions and results on the mandate governance intended to be established on Istanbul and Straits.

Keywords

London and San Remo Conferences, mandate, Istanbul and the Straits, newspaper news, colon

Read: 1,518

Download: 772