Özet:

This paper aims to analyze two memoranda about Western Thrace prepared by two Western Thracian intellectuals and submitted to the Entente Powers in Paris Conference on 22 March 1922. The first two in the Turkish Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive were written by an intellectual named Haydar Beg. The first memorandum contains information about the geography, population, real estate, and historical buildings in Western Thrace. Western Thrace was an integral part of Edirne Province, and main feature of this first memorandum was to declare in favor of self-determination in Western Thrace in accordance with the principles of Wilson. The writer of the second memorandum, “Edirne Province and Eastern Turkey,” is Tahir Lütfi Beg. This memorandum demanded that Western Thrace should re-join Edirne Province. Both memoranda consider the future of Western Thrace as part of Turkey and ask that this should be notified to the Entente Powers. However, international conditions were a major obstacle to the fulfillment of this demand. Indeed, in the Treaty of Lausanne, Western Thrace was left with Greece, with a boundary of the River Maritza.

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