German-Turkish settlement treaty

On 10 April 1918 in Berlin representatives of the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire exchanged the instruments of ratification of ten legal agreements that had been signed in the same city on 11 January 1917. The British chronology of the war names only one from the whole package, the “Settlement Treaty” (Niederlassungsvertrag). All ten, however, were ratified at once: besides the settlement treaty, a consular convention, agreements on legal assistance, on extradition and on the surrender of deserters, and five supplementary agreements. The notice of the exchange of ratifications is dated 12 April, and the German law gazette (Reichsgesetzblatt) published it together with the texts of the treaties only on 17 May 1918.

The settlement treaty concerned the everyday position of Germans in Turkey and Turks in Germany. A German dissertation on the capitulations and the new treaties, published in 1918, pointed out that its authors had modelled it on agreements Germany had previously concluded with the Netherlands (1904) and Switzerland (1909). Nationals of each party had the right to settle and reside in the territory of the other as long as they obeyed its laws, including police regulations. The nationality of children was to depend on that of their parents, not on their place of birth. On a most-favoured-nation basis they could acquire movable and immovable property, inherit, engage in trade and crafts and farm the land. They could not be taxed more heavily than the party’s own nationals or those of the most favoured state. The same rights covered commercial and insurance companies. Compensation for expropriation and military requisitions, exceptionally frequent in wartime, could not be lower than for local people, and poor foreigners were entitled to care and medical treatment.

Article 5 changed the most. In the days of the capitulations the Turkish authorities could not expel a foreigner without the consent of his consul. Now each party could expel a national of the other by virtue of a court judgment, on grounds of internal or external security, or for other police reasons, such as health, morals or poverty. The home country had to accept such a person. This provision drew criticism in the Reichstag, which had to approve the agreements. Deputies pointed out that it gave the police too much latitude. The lawyer and deputy Franz von Liszt replied that all objections had to give way before the political importance of the whole system of agreements. Separate rules applied in the Hejaz, Yemen and Nejd, where for religious and political reasons the Porte granted the Germans only most-favoured-nation rights.

For the Turks the exchange of ratifications was confirmation that their strongest ally treated them as partners. In the treaty Germany recognised the abolition of the capitulations, against which it had itself still protested in the autumn of 1914. In the spring of 1918, however, the Caucasus cast a shadow over relations between the two states. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Ottoman armies were advancing rapidly eastwards. In March they retook Erzurum, at the beginning of April they took Sarıkamış and recovered Van, and ahead of them lay Batumi and Kars, which the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave to Turkey. In Berlin there were fears that the war minister Enver Pasha would not stop at those borders and would reach for Georgia and Baku, whose resources and railways Germany also cared about. The dispute over the Caucasus erupted in full force in May and June 1918. The defeat of the Central Powers in the autumn meant, moreover, that the agreements, ratified with such solemnity, were in practice in force for only a few months.