The Treaty of Lausanne was signed at the end of an international conference held between November 1922 and July 1923. It brought together representatives of the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, the Serbo-Croato-Slovenian State and Turkey. The history of the Ottoman Empire is worth recalling. In the 16th century, the reign of Süleyman I, known as the Magnificent, marked its apogee. In 1571, the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto marked the end of Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean. Successive sultans tried to expand into Europe. During the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire declined and lost territory (Greece, Romania, Serbia, etc.). In 1908, the coup d'état by the Young Turks overthrew the Sultans' regime. Turkey sided with Germany in the First World War. At the end of the war, it lost new territories (Syria, Iraq, Egypt). The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) made Turkey a non-European country. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk takes power. He reformed and modernised the country. The Treaty of Lausanne marks Turkey's recognition by the other countries present. The constitution of modern Turkey is modelled on the Swiss constitution.

Thoreau Redcrow is an American global conflict analyst who specializes in geopolitics, stateless nations and armed guerrilla movements. He is a frequent speaker before the United Nations Human Rights Council (which takes place currently) in Geneva and has been a foreign policy advisor for several groups seeking self-determination. He has previously worked on the ground throughout Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Africa, and the Middle East. He is currently Co-Director of the English branch of the Kurdish Center for Studies. At the end of the 1980s, Thoreau Redcrow was living with his family in south-east Turkey. The Turkish state was burning Kurdish villages there. A few years later, he turned to studying the Kurdish question and the history of the Middle East. He found it curious that states that did not exist had been created by colonial powers who drew borders incorrectly to exploit resources and felt that these borders were sacred and should not be readjusted.

geneveMonde.ch met Dr Thoreau Redcrow at the end of the two-day conceptual cycle of round tables on the Kurdish question and stateless peoples. The Théâtre de Vidy was packed for that two-day long artistic project named "New World Embassy: Kurdistan", an "innovative and unprecedented" project, according to Vincent Baudriller, the director of the Lausanne theatre. The production was conceived by Nilüfer Koç and Jonas Staal, and you can see some of the footage here.

Interviewed by David Glaser

Photo of Dr. Thoreau Redcrow (all rights reserved)