All German rights in the Bagdad Railway and other economic enterprises
in the Near East were abrogated by the Treaty of Versailles, signed
June 28, 1919. The German Government was obligated to obtain and to
turn over to the Reparation Commission “any rights and interests of
German nationals in any public utility undertaking or in any concession
operating in ... Turkey, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria” and agreed, as
well, “to recognize and accept all arrangements which the Allied and
Associated Powers may make with Turkey and Bulgaria with reference to
any rights, interests and privileges whatever which might be claimed by
Germany or her nationals in Turkey and Bulgaria.”[36]
The Treaty of Sèvres, August 10, 1920—together with the accompanying
secret Tripartite Agreement of the same date between Great Britain,
France, and Italy—carried still further the liquidation of German
interests in the Near East. The Turkish Government was required to
dispose of all property rights in Turkey of Germany, Austria, Hungary,
Bulgaria, or their respective nationals and to turn over the proceeds
of all purchases and sales to the Reparation Commission established
under the treaties of peace with those Powers. The Anatolian and
Bagdad Railways were to be expropriated by Turkey and all of their
rights, privileges, and properties to be assigned—at a valuation to be
determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Council of the League of
Nations—to a Franco-British-Italian corporation to be designated by the
representatives of the Allied Powers. German stockholders were to be
compensated for their holdings, but the amount of their compensation
was to be turned over to the Reparation Commission; compensation due
the Turkish Government was to be assigned to the Allied Governments
toward the costs of maintaining their armies of occupation on Turkish
soil. German and Turkish property in ceded territories of the Ottoman
Empire was to be similarly liquidated. The Treaty of Versailles and the
Treaty of Sèvres left hardly a vestige of German influence in the Near
East.[37]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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