Abstract:

The purpose of the study was defined as to present the historical development of the trade and clearing agreements in the context of Turkish- Greek economic relations after the 1929 World Economic Crisis. In this respect, the agreements and legal regulations that the two countries made in the trading area in order to ensure their financial developments and the obtained results were evaluated in the research. Likewise, evidences related to the attitude of the public opinion of both sides towards the Turkish- Greek economic relations were also presented. The Turkish- Greek relations went through a tense period between the years 1923-1928 due to the etabli problem and Patriarchate problem after the Lausanne Peace Treaty. However, the developments in the international arena necessitated the resolution of the existing issues and improvement of the political relations between the two countries. In this sense, the relations between two countries began to moderate from 1928. The 1929 World Economic Crisis also enabled the convergence of these two countries economically because both sides of the Aegean Sea were aware that they had to concentrate on production instead of armament for improving their economies. For this reason, the sides signed “Dostluk, Tarafsızlık, Uzlaşma ve Hakemlik Antlaşması” (The Friendship, Neutrality, Agreement and Arbitration Treaty), “Deniz Kuvvetlerinin Sınırlandırılmasına İlişkin Protokol” (The Protocol Related With Limitation of The Naval Forces), and “İkamet, Ticaret ve Seyrisefain Antlaşması” (Residence, Trade and Sailing Agreement”) in order to develop economic relations starting from 30 October 1930. Due to these agreements, the Turkish- Greek relations gained critical momentum also in economic area. This research was based on the Republic Archive documents of the State Archives Department of the Presidency and the periodicals of the time.

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