International Conference

Keynote Roundtable: Ayhan Aktar, Laura Robson, Fotini Tsibiridou and Konstantinos Tsitselikis.

A century after the signing of the Lausanne Treaty and the forced population exchanges it endorsed, the Lausanne moment continues to shape international politics and debates surrounding sovereignty, migration, security, and identity. While the Lausanne Treaty is one of the few treaties of the interwar period that have withstood the passage of time, perceptions of the Treaty have been less stable. The “unmixing” of communities, considered a valid peace-making tool in 1923 has come to be seen as mutual “ethnic cleansing.” Meanwhile in Turkey, fierce debate swirls around whether Lausanne should be considered a Turkish ‘victory’ or a ‘defeat’.

 In Greece aspects of the treaty, such as the jurisdiction of the mufti to apply Sharia law in Western Thrace have faced solid legal criticism. Even as regional stability appears to be under threat, many insist that the treaty is a bastion of peace not to be touched. Discussion of the revisability (or not) of the treaty was enough to create a Greek-Turkish diplomatic incident. The conference aims to bridge the divide isolating the disciplines that have addressed the Lausanne treaty.

 

Programme 

Thursday, 9 November

16.45 Opening Remarks

17.00 Panel 1: Refugeehood & Statecraft

• One Century, Two Refugee Crises – Olga Lafazani, Eleni Kyramargiou, Alkis Kapokakis and Thanasis Tyrovolas
• The Transformation of the Social Representations of Refugees from Lausanne to the Refugee Crisis of the 21st century – Katerina Kostopoulou and Antonios Gardikiotis
• Forced Migration as State-Making and Statecraft: Understanding the Geopolitics of Organized Displacement – Fiona B. Adamson and Kelly M. Greenhill

18.30 Refreshment break

18.45 Keynote Roundtable 

With: Ayhan Aktar, Laura Robson, Fotini Tsibiridou and Konstantinos Tsitselikis. Moderator: Sofia Christoforidou

19.45 Reception and Performance

Friday, 10 November

9.00 Panel 2: Reconsidering the New Imperial Order

• The Treaty of Lausanne in the Periphery: The Case of Cyprus – Nikos Christofis
• The Last Phase of the Eastern Question for Japan: From the First World War to Lausanne – Shohei Akagawa
• Between Albania and Turkey: Muslim Albanian-Speakers and Regional Implications of the 1923 Greek-Turkish Population Exchange – Lediona Shahollari
• The Exchange of Populations and the Ottoman Public Debt through the Archives of A. A. Pallis – Lukas Tsiptsios

10.45 Refreshment break

11.15 Panel 3: Unwelcome Legacies?

• Invention and Destruction of a Half-baked Tradition. Lausanne Day in Early Republican Turkey: From “Genuine Salvation” to Complete Oblivion – Aytek Soner Alpan
• Coloniality and Humanitarianism after Lausanne: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Greek Refugee Crisis of 1922 – Dimitris Kamouzisand Demetra Tzanaki
• The Minority Trauma and Its Decisive Effect on the Construction of the “Thracian Muslim Minority” Identity – Panagiota Kalafati and Giorgos Mavrommatis
• “A War of Minds at the School Yard:” Sustaining Foreign Schools in Turkey in the Post-Lausanne Landscape – Enno Maessen

13.00 Lunch

14.30 Panel 4: Heritage and Place-Making

• Reshaping Cultural Heritage after Lausanne: The Izmir Museum and the Acquisition of the Abandoned Properties of the Departed non-Muslims – Selvihan Kurt
• Excavating a Nation. Archaeology in Turkey before and after the Treaty of Lausanne – Hélène Maloigne
• Possessing the Virgin and the Quran: Cultural Heritage Policies During the Lausanne Peace Conference – Nilay Özlü

16.00 Refreshment break 

16.30 Panel 5: Cultural Responses to Lausanne 

• Symbolic Cretanness and the Assertion of Distinctiveness: Second- and third-generation Cretans in Turkey – Efpraxia Nerantzaki
• Epic Warriors, Romantic Lovers, and the Silence of Traumatic Testimony: The postmemory of Pontos in parakathi singing – Ioannis Tsekouras
• Theatres of Expulsion: Negotiating the Aftereffects of the Treaty of Lausanne in Rum Theatre – Christina Banalopoulou

18.30 Conference Dinner 

Saturday, 11 November

9.00 Panel 6: Legal Aspects 

• Perpetual Peace or Capitulations: A Longitudinal Legal Analysis of the Lausanne Treaty – Nergis Canefe
• To Revise or not Revise the Lausanne Treaty: a non-legal debate – Zülâl Muslu
• The Concept of Amnesty in the Treaty of Lausanne – Laura Robson

10.30 Refreshment break

11.00 Panel 7: Teaching Lausanne

How is Lausanne taught in Greek/Turkish high schools? How can we help students make their own narratives? A discussion featuring Andreas Galanos, Angelos Palikidis, Yıldız Deveci Bozkuş and Ismail Güven.

12.00 Lunch break

13.00 City Tour: 100 Memories

Delegates will be invited to take part in a historical walk created by the ‘100 memories’ research team of National Hellenic Research Foundation: a digital tour highlighting the multiple migrations, both arrivals and departures, that have taken place in Thessaloniki. 

 

Conference link: https://thelausanneproject.com/thessaloniki/

 

*Registration for listeners has now been completed. On-site registration for additional seating will be available on a first-come first-served basis (limited places)

 

The conference is co-organized by The Lausanne Project in collaboration with the Laboratory of International Politics and Legal Studies (POLIS) of the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia

 

Conference Scientific committee

Jonathan Conlin (University of Southampton, The Lausanne Project)

Georgios Giannakopoulos (City, University of London, The Lausanne Project)

Leonidas Karakatsanis (University of Macedonia)

Ozan Ozavci (Utrecht University, The Lausanne Project) 

Julia Secklehner (Brno University, The Lausanne Project)

Dimitris Stamatopoulos (University of Macedonia)

Fotini Tsibiridou (University of Macedonia)

Konstantinos Tsitselikis (University of Macedonia)

 

Conference Organizing committee

Jonathan Conlin (University of Southampton, The Lausanne Project)

Georgios Giannakopoulos (City, University of London, The Lausanne Project)

Leonidas Karakatsanis (Polis Lab, University of Macedonia)

Ozan Ozavci (Utrecht University, The Lausanne Project) 

Julia Secklehner (Brno University, The Lausanne Project)