The New Turkey 1926

The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) ceded Ottoman territory in Arab Asia and North Africa to the Allies; in 1923, the Turkish War of Independence finally saw off the Allied occupation. Armenia was made independent and Kurdistan (Kars) declared autonomous. The Ankara Agreement replaced this treaty in 1921, when France ceded large amounts of land to Turkey, in return for Turkish recognition of French sovereignty in Syria. After Turkish Independence, which was fully ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the new Republic of Turkey was born. In return, Turkey recognized Cyprus, with a Turkish population of 19 per cent, as a British sovereign state. In 1926, the dual monarchy of Hejaz and Nejd (Saudi Arabia) was created. This was an absolutist monarchy, which operated under Sharia (Islamic) law, in contrast to Turkey which, in 1926, rejected Sharia law and modelled itself on the Swiss civil code.