A Sad Footnote in History

[Steve R.]

August 10th, 1920: The Signing of the Treaty of Sevres - "A Greece of Two Continents and Five Seas"

It was one of a series of treaties that the Central Powers signed with the Allied Powers after their defeat in World War I. Hostilities had already ended with the Armistice of Mudros.

This treaty returned control of Constantinople to Greece. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire on May 24, 1453. Over the intervening years the West made "noises" about recapturing Constantinople. With this treaty, it finally happened. But then the West blew it,

Atatürk led the Turkish nationalists in the war to defeat the combined armies of the signatories of the Treaty of Sèvres, as well as to continue the genocide of Anatolia's and Eastern Thrace's Christians, namely Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians.

The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres, ended the conflict and saw the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, with Greece losing Ionia and Eastern Thrace.

One-hundred and two years have now passed and Constantinople remains under Turkish control. Turkey, on July 20, 1974, invaded Cyprus. Once again, the West failed to intervene. This is especially galling from the perspective that Turkey is a member of NATO and a supposed US ally.

As an additional historical footnote. Western Europe came pretty close to getting overrun by the Ottoman Empire. In 1589 Vienna was placed under siege by the Ottoman Empire. Then in 1683 Vienna was once again attacked by the Ottomans. While Western Europe today is not under that type of military threat, Christians have been pushed out of many areas in the Middle East. Threats also remain for Israel.