How 12 Islands Became Greece's?

The 12 Islands issue dates back to the Tripoli War between Italy and the Ottoman Empire. First of all, it should be noted that the number of these islands is 14, not 12. The status of these islands, which are centered on the administrative center of Rhodes and opposite Turkey's Aydın and Muğla provinces, and other islands in the Aegean Sea are different. In other words, not counting the small reefs, the 12 Islands actually consist of 13 islands and the island of Meis. Among the 12 islands, the status of Meis is different from the other islands. Meis is under French sovereignty. It should be noted that the 12 Islands should not be confused with the other Eastern Aegean islands located further north in the Aegean such as Chios, Samos, Mytilene, Limni and Samothrace.

Let us now go back to the beginning of the 12 Islands issue. The problem started in 1910 when Italy laid claim to the territory of Tripolitania, today's Libya, which was then the territory of the Ottoman Empire. When the Italians landed troops in Tripolitania, the Ottoman Empire went to war with Italy, but since the Ottoman Empire did not have enough sea power at that time, it could not send troops to Tripolitania by sea against Italy, which had a strong navy. The Ottoman Empire adopted to conduct the war as a local resistance by organizing the soldiers sent from Anatolia by the local people. As we all know, Mustafa Kemal, under the pseudonym of Şerif Bey, a journalist, went to Tripoli via Egypt and participated in this struggle. In practice, we can say that this struggle was successful on the mainland of Tripolitania. However, Italy expanded the borders of the war with its powerful navy and occupied 12 islands except Meis, which was Ottoman territory. 

In this process, the Ottoman Empire suddenly found itself in the Balkan War. The meaning of the Balkans for the Ottoman Empire was quite different. I think the words of the officers who left the struggle in Tripoli and went to the Balkans to fight at that time, "we came to the motherland", reveal this importance. 

With the outbreak of the Balkan War, the Ottoman Empire, which could not fight two wars at the same time, concluded a peace agreement with the Italians in 1912. The Turkish-Italian War ended with the agreement known as the "Treaty of Ushi" or the "First Treaty of Lausanne", which was signed on October 18, 1912 in the Ushi district of Lausanne, Switzerland. In this peace treaty, the Italian-occupied territories were not actually ceded to Italy. With a clause included in the agreement, the 12 Islands would be returned to the Ottoman Empire when the last Ottoman troops in Tripoli withdrew. So why did the agreement say that the Ottoman Empire would return the 12 Islands to the Ottoman Empire "when the last soldier withdraws", not "when Tripolitania is left to the Italians"? Because at that time, Greece, which we fought in the Balkan War, occupied the Northern Aegean islands in front of the Dardanelles with its navy. Since the Ottoman diplomats feared the occupation of the 12 Islands by Greece, they included such an article in the agreement and at least tacitly accepted the continuation of Italian sovereignty in the 12 Islands. 

The Ottoman Empire suffered a major defeat in the Balkan War and suffered huge territorial losses. During this period, the Italians demanded several times that the Ottoman Empire withdraw its last troops from Tripolitania and announced that it would hand over the 12 Islands. However, since the biggest problem for the Ottoman Empire at that time was to prepare for the upcoming World War I by rebuilding the army that had almost disintegrated in the Balkan War, this request was not taken seriously. 

In the First World War that started in 1914, Italy was among the enemies of the Ottoman Empire. So much so that the leading role for the plan of the Entente states to invade Anatolia was actually given to Italy by the British. In the secret agreements made, even the occupation of Izmir by the Italians was planned. However, since the British took advantage of the Greek-occupied North Aegean islands during the Gallipoli Wars, a closer alliance between the British and Greece emerged. The fact that the British did not want a strong Italian navy in the Mediterranean against their own navy also played a role in this.  

We all know the rest of the story. When Greece left Izmir and Anatolia in defeat on September 9, 1922, the 12 Islands were still under Italian occupation. 

The new Turkish State went to the Lausanne Peace Treaty with certain firm and decisive demands. Among these, the abolition of capitulations, Turkish sovereignty over the Straits, the debts of the Ottoman Empire, the Mosul issue, the status of Hatay and the Armenian claims were at the forefront. Among such important issues, the status of the 12 Islands was also a subject of discussion, but was not prioritized over other issues. The Turkish delegation's definition of the borders of the new Turkish Republic as Misakı Milli (Misakı National), which was based on the places where Turkish troops were stationed when the Armistice of Mudros was signed on October 30, 1918, played a role here. According to this definition, the 12 Islands were not within the borders of the Misakı Milli. 

But interestingly, just at the stage when the agreement was about to be signed, a dispute arose with the French over Meis. Because the island of Meis was 2-3 kilometers away from Anatolia and it was thought that if it was abandoned, it would create a problem for the security of the mainland. This dispute was so protracted that the signing of the agreement was jeopardized. At this stage, the Turkish delegation reluctantly announced its renunciation of Meis in order not to jeopardize the signing of the treaty. 

12 The status of the islands remained like this until the end of the Second World War. At the end of the war, with the Treaty of Paris dated February 10, 1947, Italy, the loser of the war, withdrew from the 12 Islands and the Islands were taken from Italy, which was among the losers in the war, and transferred to Greece, which was on the side of the victors. 

Meanwhile, an interesting event took place during the war. In 1943, Germany made an offer to cede the 12 Islands to Turkey. The aim of the Germans was for Turkey to side with Germany and even for Turkey to enter the war against the British on their side. However, İnönü foresaw that the war would end with Germany's defeat and rejected the offer on the grounds that such a conflict with Greece and Britain could not be entered into. 

As a result, if we summarize the reasons why the 12 Islands were lost from our hands;

- The lack of naval power in the last periods of the Ottoman Empire

- The Ottoman Empire did not have the military power to fight in Tripolitania and the Balkans at the same time

- Failure to establish de facto military sovereignty, i.e. sovereignty, in both the 12 Islands and the Eastern Aegean islands since 1912

- The status of the 12 Islands was treated as a perpetually postponed issue due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire and subsequently Turkey struggled with many important problems, both politically and militarily, between 1914 and 1922

- In the 1924 Lausanne process, the new Turkish state was militarily and politically fragile and was not ready to risk another war, so it only wanted to achieve its priorities and sign the peace treaty as soon as possible.