Lausanne abolition dreams: Erdogan confessing his imperialist ambitions in front of Atatürk’s grave (1 – 4) 

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled his plans to control the resources of the East Mediterranean a few days ago.

Erdoğan did this when he stood in front of the grave of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, on the occasion of holding the meeting of the Turkish Consultative Military Council for 2020.

Addressing the grave, Erdoğan said his government worked to fulfill the objectives of the Turkish Republic for 2023.

Dreaming

In a sign of his disconnect with realities, Erdoğan added that the achievements his country made on all fronts, including in Libya, Syria and the East Mediterranean, demonstrated the strength of the Turkish Republic and the power of its army.

On the following day, the Head of Turkey’s Religious Directorate, Ali Arbas, stood on the pulpit of Hagia Sophia Museum-converted-mosque and held a sword in his hand, reviving an old Ottoman tradition by Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Almost all Ottoman rulers imitated the Conqueror to denote the planned revival of the Ottoman Empire.

The two scenes throw light on Turkish ambitions in the region. They show that Erdoğan wants to revive the conditions of bygone times by dividing the countries of the region, all with the aim of fulfilling the objectives of the Turkish Republic in 2023.

Erdoğan dreams of abolishing the Treaty of Lausanne and applying what is known as the National Oath or the set of six decisions made by the last term of the Ottoman Parliament.

Ottoman armies received a humiliating defeat at the hands of the allies, namely Britain and France, at the end of World War I.

History

The National Oath conceded the defeat of the Ottoman armies and the loss of Arab states. However, it excluded the Kurdistan region as well as northern Syria and northern Iraq.

The Oath considered these regions part of the new Turkish state, given the fact that most of the residents of these regions speak Turkish. The same Oath considered the whole of Cyprus, Western Thrace and the Aegean Sea islands to be part of the same state for the same reasons.

Nonetheless, the map produced by the National Oath made the allies angry. This was why the Greek army attacked the western line of Anatolia on March 3, 1920. The allies also occupied Istanbul on March 19 of the same year.