Chanak Crisis - The Events

The Events

The Turkish troops had recently defeated Greek forces and recaptured Izmir (Smyrna) on 9 September and were advancing on Constantinople in the neutral zone. The British Cabinet met on September 15, 1922 and decided that British forces should maintain their positions. On the following day, in the absence of Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, certain Cabinet ministers issued a communiqué threatening Turkey with a declaration of war by Britain and the Dominions, on the grounds that Turkey had violated the Treaty of Sèvres. On 18 September, on his return to London, Curzon pointed out that this would enrage the pro-Turkish Prime Minister of France, Raymond Poincaré and left for Paris to attempt to smooth things over. Poincaré, however, had already ordered the withdrawal of the French detachment at Chanak, but persuaded the Turks to respect the neutral zone. Curzon reached Paris on September 20, and after several angry meetings with Poincaré, reached agreement to negotiate an armistice with the Turks.

The British public were alarmed by the Chanak episode and the possibility of going to war again. It did not help that Prime Minister David Lloyd George had not fully consulted the Dominion prime ministers. Unlike the case eight years earlier, when World War I broke out, Canada in particular did not automatically consider itself active in the conflict. Instead, Prime Minister Mackenzie King insisted that the Canadian Parliament should decide on the course of action the country would follow. By the time the issue had been debated in the Canadian House of Commons, the threat at Chanak had passed. Nonetheless, King made his point: the Canadian Parliament would decide the role that Canada would play in external affairs and could diverge from the British government. The other Dominion Prime Ministers also gave no support, nor did the Serbs, Italy or Roumania.

On 23 September, the British cabinet decided to abandon East Thrace to the Turks. On 28 September, Mustafa Kemal told the British, he had ordered his troops to avoid any incident at Chanak and agreed to a peace negotiation, nominating Mudanya as the venue. The parties met there on 3 October and agreed to the terms of the Armistice of Mudanya on 11 October, two hours before British forces were due to attack. The Turks may have been persuaded to agree by the arrival of British reinforcements.