The League of Nations and Turkish political refugees in Greece in the early 1930s

Abstract

With the signing of the Ankara Agreement in 1930 between Turkey and Greece, the Greek government withdrew its open support for Turkish political opponents of the Kemalist government and expelled such figures from Western Thrace. Among them were some Yüzellilikler, the 150 people proscribed by the Turkish government under the Protocol of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. The Yüzellilikler, who had gained the status of refugees under the protection of the League of Nations as a result of the 1928 Arrangement, now turned to the League for support. Focusing on the cases of the ex-şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri and former Ottoman police officer Namık Hilmi, this article discusses the role of the Athens Office of the Nansen International Office for Refugees of the League of Nations in supporting and strengthening the position of the Turkish political opposition to the Kemalist regime in Turkey in the early 1930s.