US law recognizes Aegean treaty regime in Dodecanese

It was in 1920 that the United States first became seriously involved in issues arising from the Aegean treaty regime in the Dodecanese. In that year, the peace conference which culminated in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 had been convened. The fate of the 12 Aegean islands commonly known as the Dodecanese was one of the issues which the peace conference debated. The US Senate passed a resolution which called on the peace conference to award the Dodecanese to Greece. The US participated in the peace conference and the Allies asked the US to sign the Treaty of Lausanne but the US did not.

US officials advised that America must not offend the emerging Republic of Turkey, a refrain which has resonated down through the decades. The peace conference granted "all rights and title" over the Dodecanese to Italy. In 1932, Italy and Turkey signed a convention and a protocol, each of...