Turkish-Soviet relations from the Great Offensive to the signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty

One of the states that Turkey received support during the Turkish War of Independence Russian State Federative Socialist Republic. After the Great Offensive, Turkey wanted to take advantage of this support while continuing its military operation in two arms towards the fronts of Çanakkale and Kocaeli, following İzmir, in order to reconquer the Eastern Thrace and the straits region. Within this period, Ankara, which took a decisive stance against the emerging war danger with the Entente Powers and their allies, did not immediately respond to the Entente Powers' offer of an agreement on September 23. Turkey, expecting Moscow to exert military pressure in the Balkans, aimed to retake Eastern Thrace and the straits before the peace talks especially by leaving Great Britain alone. Although the Soviet government preferred Turkish control in the straits to the British presence, it maintain an indecisive attitude that did not satisfy Turkey at this critical point and even brought into doubt. Moscow, avoided giving a definite response to Ankara's requests for support and encouraging it to hang out its forward operation, also embarked on military readiness' in the Caucasus. Under these circumstances, Ankara, unable to predict the aims of the Soviets, chose the path of agreement with the Entente Powers and signed the Mudanya Armistice, ending the military phase of the National Struggle, thus having to agree to start peace negotiations while Istanbul and the Straits were under the occupation of the Entente. Moscow was contented with watching the Mudanya talks and Turkey's retaking of Eastern Thrace without firing a single shot. Since the status of the straits, which will be discussed at the Lausanne Conference, was of great importance for Moscow, worried about protecting its territory from attacks from the south by gaining on these regions, the Soviets wanted to participate in all the negotiations, but they did not succeed in this. The Soviets, expecting the status of the straits to be settled in accordance with the Moscow Agreement, did not get what they wanted on this issue. The Lausanne process witnessed insecurities and forced rapprochement attempts between the Ankara government and the Moscow government, which could not meet on a common front with Turkey in Lausanne. In our study, the Turkish-Soviet relations in this process we demarked have been tried to be clarified with an inquiry perspective depending on the cause-effect relationship.