A century after the signing of the Lausanne Treaty and the forced population exchanges it endorsed, the Lausanne moment continues to shape international politics and debates surrounding sovereignty, migration, security, and identity. While the Lausanne Treaty is one of the few treaties of the interwar period that have withstood the passage of time, perceptions of the Treaty have been less stable. The “unmixing” of communities, considered a valid peace-making tool in 1923 has come to be seen as mutual “ethnic cleansing.” Meanwhile in Turkey, fierce debate swirls around whether Lausanne should be considered a Turkish ‘victory’ or a ‘defeat’.

In Greece aspects of the treaty, such as the jurisdiction of the mufti to apply Sharia law in Western Thrace have faced solid legal criticism. Even as regional stability appears to be under threat, many insist that the treaty is a bastion of peace not to be touched. Discussion of the revisability (or not) of the treaty was enough to create a Greek-Turkish diplomatic incident. The conference aims to bridge the divide isolating the disciplines that have addressed the Lausanne treaty.

Draft Programme:

Panel 1: Refugeehood and Statecraft

• One Century, Two Refugee Crises – Olga Lafazani, Eleni Kyramargiou, Alkis Kapokakis and Thanasis Tyrovolas
• The Transformation of the Social Representations of Refugees from Lausanne to the Refugee Crisis of the 21st century – Katerina Kostopoulou and Antonios Gardikiotis
• Forced Migration as State-Making and Statecraft: Understanding the Geopolitics of Organized Displacement – Fiona B. Adamson and Kelly M. Greenhill

Part 2: Reconsidering the New Imperial Order

• The Treaty of Lausanne in the Periphery: The Case of Cyprus – Nikos Christofis
• The Last Phase of the Eastern Question for Japan: From the First World War to Lausanne – Shohei Akagawa
• Between Albania and Turkey: Muslim Albanian-Speakers and Regional Implications of the 1923 Greek-Turkish Population Exchange – Lediona Shahollari
• The Exchange of Populations and the Ottoman Public Debt through the Archives of A. A. Pallis – Lukas Tsiptsios

Part 3: Unwelcome Legacies?

• Invention and Destruction of a Half-baked Tradition. Lausanne Day in Early Republican Turkey: From “Genuine Salvation” to Complete Oblivion – Aytek Soner Alpan
• Coloniality and Humanitarianism after Lausanne: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Greek Refugee Crisis of 1922 – Dimitris Kamouzis and Demetra Tzanaki
• The Minority Trauma and Its Decisive Effect on the Construction of the “Thracian Muslim Minority” Odentity – Panagiota Kalafati and Giorgos Mavrommatis
• ‘A War of Minds at the School Yard:’ Sustaining Foreign Schools in Turkey in the Post-Lausanne Landscape – Enno Maessen

Part 4: Heritage and Place-Making

• Reshaping Cultural Heritage after Lausanne: The Izmir Museum and the Acquisition of the Abandoned Properties of the Departed non-Muslims – Selvihan Kurt
• Excavating a Nation. Archaeology in Turkey before and after the Treaty of Lausanne – Hélène Maloigne
• Possessing the Virgin and the Quran: Cultural Heritage Policies During the Lausanne Peace Conference – Nilay Özlü

Part 5: Cultural Responses to Lausanne

• Symbolic Cretanness and the Assertion of Distinctiveness: Second- and third-generation Cretans in Turkey – Efpraxia Nerantzaki
• Epic Warriors, Romantic Lovers, and the Silence of Traumatic Testimony: The postmemory of Pontos in parakathi singing – Ioannis Tsekouras
• Theatres of Expulsion: Negotiating the Aftereffects of the Treaty of Lausanne in Rum Theatre – Christina Banalopoulou

Part 6: Legal Aspects

• Perpetual Peace or Capitulations: A Longitudinal Legal Analysis of the Lausanne Treaty – Nergis Canefe
• To Revise or not Revise the Lausanne Treaty: a non-legal debate – Zülâl Muslu
• The Concept of Amnesty in the Treaty of Lausanne – Laura Robson

Part 7: Teaching Lausanne

• Teaching Lausanne:  The Treaty of Lausanne in History Textbooks in Turkey: Current Situation and Some Suggestions – Yıldız Deveci Bozkuş
• Lausanne in Greek/Turkish High Schools – Angelos Palikidis
• Concluding discussion with Andreas Galanos

City Tour: 100 Memories

Delegates will be invited to take part in a historical walk created by the ‘100 memories’ research team of National Hellenic Research Foundation: a digital tour highlighting the multiple migrations, both arrivals and departures, that have taken place in Thessaloniki.

More information: https://thelausanneproject.com/thessaloniki/