Page 632 - Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed

punished by not only its own public, but other countries as well. Europe

wouldn't risk that.

Furthermore, the Soviet Union, which had signed a treaty of friendship

with Turkey in 1921, declared that if a new war broke out, it would fight
alongside Turkey. This situation completely tipped the balance.

Seeing the decisive stance of Turkey, the Western countries took action

to resume the talks and thus the second part of the Conference of Lausanne
began on April 23, 1923. Lord Curzon and former 'celebrities' didn't attend

this time. Horace Rumbold, the High Commissioner to Istanbul, was head-
ing the British delegation and the conference.

Capitulations represented the biggest obstacle to concluding the Con-
ference of Lausanne. The Westerners didn't want to give up on them, espe-
cially under heavy pressure from various economic groups. On the other

hand, Turkey was adamant on refusing all sorts of limitations on its inde-

pendence. Therefore, no agreement could be reached in the negotiations, and
talks continued until May 4. Other financial issues continued to be a source
of difficulty, as well.

After long discussions, it was decided to add the following clause to the
treaty with regard to the capitulations:

Article 28: Each of the High Contracting Parties hereby accepts, in so far as

it is concerned, the complete abolition of the Capitulations in Turkey in every
respect. 437

In the meantime, the other parties demanded that health capitulations
should continue in Istanbul in the form of a commission of physicians, but

the Turkish side rejected this, too. In the end, it was decided that for five years,
three European doctors would be allowed to work in quarantine works in the

capacity of consultants. This ended the health capitulations, as well. Five years
later, these three foreign doctors were dismissed and the health-care indus-

try was made completely domestic. Atatürk mentioned in his famous Nutuk
(the Great Speech), 'this wasn't a capitulation. We agreed that a couple of for-

eign doctors serviced for five years'. 438

Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed