The Wilsonian Moment at Lausanne, 1922–1923

Abstract

This article discusses the background and diplomatic strategies of the Turkish delegation at Lausanne and their selective understanding of self-determination, excluding non-Turkic and non-Muslim people in Anatolia from the ‘self’ that has the right to determine its national existence. It also elaborates on the reasons why the Allies acknowledged this exclusion in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. We borrow from Erez Manela's interpretation of the ‘Wilsonian moment’ to frame these diplomatic and political developments and to show how and why the democratic intent of Wilson's idea of self-determination vanished in the framing of the Peace Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.