Lausanne Peace Treaty - the Turkish-Romanian Joint Arbitration Court Case Study: Nikola Kalfa’s Case

Abstract

The aim of this study are the relationships between Turkey and Romania, states with strong political, economic and socio-cultural ties, deeply rooted in history. Romania, which remained under the administration of the Ottoman State for several centuries, gained its independence after the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-1878. Achieving its independence did not cause hostility between the two states, but Turkey-Romania relations were discontinued during World War I, when Romania joined the Allied Powers / Entente. Although relations between the two states cooled in 1916, they re-established in 1922. The new relations between the two states expressed not only good intentions and principles of assistance, but were based on a fair and solid basis of cooperation. After 1923, when the Lausanne Peace Treaty was signed, relations between Turkey and Romania headed a different direction. Lausanne Peace Traty established some joint courts, and one of them  is the Joint Turkish-Romanian Arbitration Court, which aimed to reach solutions to old, contested issues between the two states, but also for issues between the state and its citizen. This paper is a novelty in the field, because so far not all aspects of legal and economic relations between the two states have been debated. Relationships between Romania and Turkey were restored after the First World War and the Lausanne Peace Treaty.

The body of the study, based on Başkanlık Cumhuriyet Arşivi (Directorate of the State Archives), BCA, and The National Archives of the United States, Washington deals with the functioning of joint courts, emphasizing the nature of the cases the courts deal with, and discusses in detail Nikola Kalfa's case, which was debated by the Turkish-Romanian Joint Arbitration Court.

The final lines highlight the influences of the Lausanne Peace Treaty on social and economic relations between the two states, Romania and Turkey. The study, “Lausanne Peace Treaty and the Turkish-Romanian Joint Arbitration Court. Case Study: Nikola Kalfa’s Case” is useful for domain researchers, for students interesed in social history, economics, last but not least for studies in international property law. This study can be useful for master and doctoral students in the field of history, economics and law.