24 July 2017•Update: 24 July 2017
By A. Eda Unlu Ozen
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked the 94th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on Monday.
The treaty -- signed by Turkey on one side and Britain, France, Italy, Greece and their allies on the other -- recognized the modern Turkish state and replaced the 1920 Treaty of Sevres imposed on the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
“With the Lausanne Treaty, the Turkish nation tore up Sevres, which took aim at its 1,000-year existence on these lands, and made the whole world acknowledge the fact that it would make no concession on its independence,” Erdogan said in a statement.
He added that Turkey had been fighting for its survival as much recently as in the past, referring to last year’s defeated coup attempt.
“The resistance that was put up against the July 15 bloody coup attempt, the first anniversary of which we commemorated last week, once again manifested how determined our nation is,” he said.
“Our entire nation’s unwavering adherence to its independence -- men and women, the elderly and the young alike -- just like a century ago, constitutes our biggest source of power in our fight for survival.”
The coup attempt led to 250 martyrs and nearly 2,200 people injured when soldiers linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization tried to seize power.
