Evaluation of Residing, Trade and Circulation Agreement with regards to İstanbul (1930-1964)

In 1923, millions of Turks and Greeks replaced as a result of commutation agreement; Greeks in Istanbul and Turks in Western Thrace which were out of commutation, in the Treaty of Lausanne, they were accepted as "minority" citizens of the countries where they lived and left in their regions of residence. In 1930, Turkey and Greece governments signed an agreement which aimed to developing relations between two countries and solving problems about commutations, namely "Residing, Trade and Circulation Agreement". Thanks to the agreement between Ataturk and Venizelos, citizens of each country would have a right for a place for resindence in the other country, acquisition of property, free movement and trade. This agreement remained in force during 34 years by renovation. Referring to agreement, approximately 12.000 Greeks (Greek national) settled in Istanbul. Within this period, the Istanbul Greek community has reached a population of around 100,000 with Greeks which abondened citizenship because they did not want to do military service. In 1963-64, government of Republic of Turkey unliterally cancelled Residing, Trade and Circulation Agreement in 16 March 1964 referring to indignance Turkish public opinion which arised as a result of negative developments such as Greek public support for the massacres committed by the EOKA terrorist organization with the aim of connecting Cyprus to Greece in Cyprus and Greeks's, which were living in Istanbul, participation in illegal organizations serving ENOSIS policies. Those whose illegal activities were identified within 24 to 48 hours; Greeks (Greek national) were asked to leave Turkey within two years. It is a great injustice that for those, issued abroad by the termination of the agreement, today in some media outlets, "exile" and "deportation" as the use of biased statements and exposing the Republic of Turkey to a similar number of baseless accusations because of this transactions. This is because, the agreement in 1930 was a form of temporary residence and free movement 'visa' agreement which was signed between two countries as a sign of friendship as well as and has been restricted for two years. In 1964, the Republic of Turkey unilaterally cancelled the agreement and this was composed of the use of unilateral termination right as defined in Article 36 in agreement and this was completely legal. Our thesis aims to determine whether the elements which caused the termination of the treaty in 1964 and especially the effects of the post-termination process on the commercial and social life of Istanbul and finally the effects of this termination process on the decrease of the Greek community within the demographic structure of Istanbul. Our study is based on the statements of the witnesses and the information and documents obtained. Key Words: Residing, Trade and Circulation Agreement, Greek National, 1930, Istanbul, 1964