THE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS
AND TURKEY
SIGNED AT SÈVRES
AUGUST 10, 1920

Index | Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

PART XIII.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 415.

Turkey undertakes to recognise and to accept the conventions made or to be made by the Allied Powers or any of them with any other Power as to the traffic in arms and in spirituous liquors, and also as to the other subjects dealt with in the General Acts of Berlin of February 26, 1885, and of Brussels of July 2, 1890, and the conventions completing or modifying the same.

ARTICLE 416.

The High Contracting Parties declare and place on record that they have taken note of the Treaty signed by the Government of the French Republic on July 17, 1918, with His Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco,defining the relations between France and the Principality.

ARTICLE 417.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the present Treaty, Turkey undertakes not to put forward directly or indirectly against any Allied Power any pecuniary claim based on events which occurred at any time before the coming into force of the present Treaty.

The present stipulation will bar completely and finally all claims of this nature, which will be thenceforward extinguished, whoever may be the parties in interest.

ARTICLE 418.

Turkey accepts and recognises as valid and binding all decrees and orders concerning Turkish ships and goods and all orders relating to the payment of costs made by any Prize Court of any of the Allied Powers, and undertakes not to put forward any claim arising out of such decrees or orders on behalf of any Turkish national.

The Allied Powers reserve the right to examine in such manner as they may determine all decisions and orders of Turkish Prize Courts, whether affecting the property rights of nationals of those Powers or of neutral Powers. Turkey agrees to furnish copies of all the documents constituing the record of the cases, including the decisions and orders made, and to accept and give effect to the recommendations made after such examination of the cases.

ARTICLE 419.

With a view to minimising the losses arising from the sinking of ships and cargoes in the course of the war, and to facilitating the recovery of ships and cargoes which can be salved and the adjustment of the private claims arising with regard thereto, the Turkish Government undertakes to supply all the information in its power which may be of assistance to the Governments of the Allied Powers or to their nationals with regard to vessels sunk or damaged by the Turkish naval forces during the period of hostilities.

ARTICLE 420.

Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty the Turkish Government must restore to the Governments of the Allied Powers the trophies, archives, historical souvenirs or works of art taken from the said Powers or their nationals, including companies and associations of every description controlled by such nationals, since October 29, 1914.

The delivery of the articles will be effected in such places and conditions as may be laid down by the Governments to which they are to be restored.

ARTICLE 421.

The Turkish Government will, within twelve months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, abrogate the existing law of antiquities and take the necessary steps to enact a new law of antiquities which will be based on the rules contained in the Annex hereto, and must be submitted to the Financial Commission for approval before being submitted to the Turkish Parliament. The Turkish Government undertakes to ensure the execution of this law on a basis of perfect equality between all nations.

ANNEX.

1.
"Antiquity" means any construction or any product of human activity earlier than the year 1700.

2.
The law for the protection of antiquities shall proceed by encouragement rather than by threat.

Any person who, having discovered an antiquity without being furnished with the authorisation referred to in paragraph 5, reports the same to an official of the competent Turkish Department, shall be rewarded according to the value of the discovery.

3.
No antiquity may be disposed of except to the competent Turkish Department, unless this Department renounces the acquisition of any such antiquity.

No antiquity may leave the country without an export licence from the said Department.

4.
Any person who maliciously or negligently destroys or damages an antiquity shall be liable to a penalty to be fixed.

5.
No clearing of ground or digging with the object of finding antiquities shall be permitted, under penalty of fine, except to persons authorised by the competent Turkish Department.

6.
Equitable terms shall be fixed for expropriation, temporary or permanent, of lands which might be of historical or archæological interest.

7
Authorisation to excavate shall only be granted to persons who show sufficient guarantees of archæological experience. The Turkish Government shall not, in granting these authorisations, act in such a way as to eliminate scholars of any nation without good grounds.

8.
The proceeds of excavations may be divided between the excavator and the competent Turkish Department in a proportion fixed by that Department. If division seems impossible for scientific reasons, the excavator shall receive a fair indemnity in lieu of a part of the find.

ARTICLE 422

All objects of religious, archæological, historical or artistic interest which have been removed since August 1, 1914, from any of the territories detached from Turkey will within twelve months from the coming into force of the present Treaty be restored by the Turkish Government to the Government of the territory from which such objects were removed.

If any such objects have passed into private ownership, the Turkish Government will take the necessary steps by expropriation or otherwise to enable it to fulfil its obligations under this Article.

Lists of the objects to be restored under this Article will be furnished to the Turkish Government by the Governments concerned within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty.

ARTICLE 423.

The Turkish Government undertakes to preserve the books, documents and manuscripts from the Library of the Russian Archæological Institute at Constantinople which are now in its possession, and to deliver them to such authority as the Allied Powers, in order to safeguard the rights of Russia, reserve the right to designate. Pending such delivery the Turkish Government must allow all persons duly authorised by any of the Allied Powers to have free access to the said books, documents and manuscripts.

ARTICLE 424.

On the coming into force of the present Treaty, Turkey will hand over without delay to the Governments concerned archives, registers, plans, title-deeds and documents of every kind belonging to the civil, military, financial, judicial or other forms of administration in the transferred territories. If any one of these documents, archives, registers, title-deeds or plans is missing, it shall be restored by Turkey upon the demand of the Government concerned.

In case the archives, registers, plans, title-deeds or documents referred to in the preceding paragraph, exclusive of those of a military character, concern equally the administrations in Turkey, and cannot therefore be handed over without inconvenience to such administrations, Turkey undertakes, subject to reciprocity, to give access thereto to the Govermllents concerned.

The Turkish Government undertakes in particular to restore to the Greek Government the local land registers or any other public registers relating to landed property in the districts of the former Turkish Empire transferred to Greece since 1912, which the Turkish authorities removed or may have removed at the time of the evacuation.

In cases where the restitution of one or more of such registers is impossible owing to their disappearance or for any other reason, and whenever necessary for purposes of verification of titles produced to the Greek authorities, the Greek Government shall be entitled to take any necessary copies of the entries in the Central Land Registry at Constantinople.

ARTICLE 425.

Tlle Turkish Government undertakes, subject to reciprocity, to afford to the Governments exercising authority over territory detached from Turkey, or of which the existing status is recognised by Turkey under the present Treaty, access to any archives and documents of every description relating to the administration of Wakfs in such territory, or to particular Wakfs, wherever situated, in which persons or institutions established in such territory are interested.

ARTICLE 426.

All judicial decisions given in Turkey by a judge or court of an Allied Power between October 30, 1918, and the coming into force of the new judicial system referred to in Article 136, Part III (Political Clauses) shall be recognised by the Turkish Government, which undertakes if necessary to ensure the execution of such decisions.

ARTICLE 427.

Subject to the provisions of Article 46, Part III (Political Clauses) Turkey hereby agrees so far as concerns her territory as delimited in Article 27 to accept and to co-operate in the execution of any decisions taken by the Allied Powers, in agreement where necessary with other Powers, in relation to any matters previously dealt with by the Constantinople Superior Council of Health and the Turkish Sanitary Administration which was directed by the said Council.

ARTICLE 428.

As regards the territories detached from Turkey under the present Treaty, and in any territories which cease in accordance with the present Treaty to be under the suzerainty of Turkey, Turkey hereby agrees to accept any decisions in conformity with the principles enunciated below taken by the Allied Powers, in agreement where necessary with other Powers, in relation to any matters previously dealt with by the Constantinople Superior Council of Health or the Turkish Sanitary Administration which was directed by the said Council, or by the Alexandria Sanitary, Maritime and Quarantine Board.

The principles referred to in the preceding paragraph are as follows:

(a) Each Allied Power will be responsible for maintaining and conducting in accordance with the provisions of international sanitary conventions its own quarantine establishments in any territory detached from Turkey which is placed under its control, whether the Allied Power be in sovereign possession, or act as mandatory or protector, or be responsible for the administration, of the territory in question;

(b) Such measures for the sanitary control of the Hedjaz pilgrimage as have hitherto been carried out by, or under the direction of, the Constantinople Superior Council of Health or the Turkish Sanitary Administration, or by the Alexandria Sanitary, Maritime and Quarantine Board, will henceforth be undertaken by the Allied Powers under whose sovereignty, mandate, protection or responsibility will pass those territories in which the various quarantine stations and sanitary establishments necessary for the execution of such measures are situated. The measures will be in conformity with the provisions of international sanitary conventions, and in order to secure complete uniformity in their execution each Allied Power concerned in the sanitary control of the pilgrimage will be represented on a co-ordinating Pilgrimage Quarantine Committee placed under the supervision of the Council of the League of Nations.

ARTICLE 429.

The High Contracting Parties agree that, in the absence of a subsequent agreement to the contrary, the Chairman of any Commission established by the present Treaty shall in the event of an equality of votes be entitled to a second vote.

ARTICLE 430.

Except where otherwise provided in the present Treaty, in all cases where the Treaty provides for the settlement of a question affecting particularly certain States by means of a special Convention to be concluded between the States concerned, it is understood by the High Contracting Parties that difficulties arising in this connection shall, until Turkey is admitted to membership of the League of Nations, be settled by the Principal Allied Powers.

ARTICLE 431.

Subject to any special provisions of the present Treaty, at the expiration of a period of six months from its coming into force, the Turkish laws must have been modified and shall be maintained by the Turkish Government in conformity with the present Treaty.

Within the same period, all the administrative and other measures relating to the execution of the present Treaty must have been taken by the Turkish Government.

ARTICLE 432.

Turkey will remain bound to give every facility for any investigation which the Council of the League of Nations, acting if need be by a majority vote, may consider necessary, in any matters relating directly or indirectly to the application of the present Treaty.

ARTICLE 433.

The High Contracting Parties agree that Russia shall be entitled, on becoming a Member of the League of Nations, to accede to the present Treaty under such conditions as may be agreed upon between the Principal Allied Powers and Russia, and without prejudice to any rights expressly conferred upon her under the present Treaty.

The present Treaty, in French, in English, and in Italian, shall be ratified. In case of divergence the French text shall prevail, except in Parts I (Covenant of the League of Nations) and XII (Labour), where the French and English texts shall be of equal force. The deposit of ratifications shall be made at Paris as soon as possible.

Powers of which the seat of the Government is outside Europe will be entitled merely to inform the Government of the French Republic through their diplomatic representative at Paris that their ratification has been given; in that case they must transmit the instrument of ratification as soon as possible.

A first procès-verbal of the deposit of ratifications will be drawn up as soon as the Treaty has been ratified by Turkey on the one hand, and by three of the Principal Allied Powers on the other hand.

From the date of this first procès-verbal the Treaty will come into force between the High Contracting Parties who have ratified it.

For the determination of all periods of time provided for in the present Treaty this date will be the date of the coming into force of the Treaty.

In all other respects the Treaty will enter into force for each Power at the date of the deposit of its ratification.

The French Government will transmit to all the signatory Powers a certified copy of the procès-verbaux of the deposit of ratifications.

IN FAITH WHEREOF the above-named Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Treaty.

Done at Sevrès, the tenth day of August one thousand nine hundred and twenty, in a single copy which will remain deposited in the archives of the French Republic, and of which authenticated copies will be transmitted to each of the Signatory Powers.

(L. S.) GEORGE GRAHAME.
(L. S.) GEORGE H. PERLEY.
(L. S.) ANDREW FISHER.
(L. S.) GEORGE GRAHAME.
(L. S.) R. A. BLANKENBERG.
(L. S.) ARTHUR HIRTZEL.
(L. S.) A. MILLERAND.
(L. S.) F. FRANÇOIS-MARSAL.
(L. S.) JULES CAMBON. (L. S.) PALÉOLOGUE.
(L. S.) BONIN.
(L. S.) MARIETTI.

(L. S.) K:. MATSUI.
(L. S.) A. AHARONIAN.
(L. S.) J. VAN DEN HEUVEL.
(L. S.) ROLIN JAEQUEMYNS,
(L. S.) E. K. VENIZELOS.
(L. S.) A. ROMANOS.

(L. S.) MAURICE ZAMOYSKI.
(L. S.) ERASME PILTZ
(L. S.) AFFONSO COSTA.

(L. S.) D. J. GUIKA.

(L. S.) STEFAN OSUSKY.

(L. S.) HADI.
(I.. S.) DR. RIZA TEWFIK.
(L. S.) RÉCHAD HALISS.