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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated on 1st and  2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.

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Letter from the Chairman of the Russian‐Ukrainian‐Georgian delegation at the Lausanne Conference to the Deputy Peopleʹs Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR M. M. Litvinov

Lausanne, January 21, 1923 No. 84

Dear comrade,

There was no such mass of false reports and rumors on any issue as on Mosul. Some significant points remained and probably remain unknown. From Curzonʹs letter to Ismet Pasha, published in todayʹs newspapers, we learned for the first time that at the beginning of the conference, Ismet Pasha had offered the British separate negotiations on Mosul. We thought, on the contrary, that it was England that proposed separate negotiations. At the moment, Ismet Pasha insists, with all his characteristic persistence, that the question of Mosul must certainly be resolved in Lausanne and must be included in the treaty. The entire British press, on the contrary, is developing the official thought of the British government that it would be better to single out the question of Mosul and refer it to a future special Anglo‐Turkish conference.

Bey Lausanne was amazed at the news that Curzon invited Ismet Pasha to raise the issue of Turkeyʹs southern border before the conference on Tuesday. At the same time, Curzon also speaks of the Syrian border, as if referring to Ismet Pasha. In his answer, Ismet Pasha accepts Curzonʹs proposal, but says that the initiative to raise the issue of the Syrian border does not come from him. In conversations, the Turks say that Curzon, obviously, wanted to drive a cline between the Turks and the French by mentioning the Syrian border. Indeed, in the Majlis, many very violently demanded the return of Alexandretta to the Turks. Now Ismet Pasha demands clarification of the clause of the Franco‐Turkish agreement on a special administrative regime for Alexandretta. Under this sauce, some kind of English intrigue will be carried out, because there the oil pipeline ends. The entire English press trumpets in the loudest tones about the need to hasten the end of the conference. Curzonʹs letter is interpreted in the sense that he wants to brusque * the solution of the most important questions. It is not known exactly what Bompard brought with him from Paris. It is reported that he brought Franceʹs consent to the distribution between the former parts of the Ottoman Empire of the debt capital itself, and not just annuities, but this concession to the Turks was made a few days ago.

The answer from the conference chairpersons ** has already been sent to you by previous mail. The question of convening the Pulling Commission remains open: neither yes nor no.

With communist greetings

Georgy Chicherin