REAL ESTATE SALES TO FOREIGNERS AND PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN TÜRKİYE IN THE PROCESS UP TO THE LAUSANNE CONFERENCE

Abstract

Real estate sales to foreigners were prohibited in the Ottoman Empire before 1867. From this date the state legalized the acquisition of real estate for foreigners but bound the acquisition to certain conditions. It was the pressure that led the state to enact such a law, which was the return of foreign debts and capitulations received after the Crimean War. Rights related to the gains that foreigners gained with this law continued until the First World War. In 1914, the abolition of capitulations with the provisions of the old treaties eliminated all privileges granted to foreigners. With the armistice, the sale of real estate to the Greeks reached ninety percent, especially in some provinces of Western Anatolia. Some suggestions put forward to ensure that Muslim real estate must not fall into the hands of foreigners were inconclusive. Everyday Muslim real estate, worth thousands of liras, was passed into the hands of foreigners which caused reactions from the Turkish public. Although the Turkish press brought to the agenda to protect Muslim property owners who encountered difficulties and necessities, no effective measures could be taken. None the measures could go beyond the advice of Muslim real estate owners to find good customers. Although the İstanbul Government had to resort to some measures after the sales increased considerably, it didn’t yield any results. In the treaty of Lausanne, while it was accepted that the citizens of the Entente States could acquire real estate in Turkey, these states also gave Turkish citizens the right to acquire real estate. In this study, the sale of real estate to foreigners, which is one of the sovereignty problems of the Turkish state from the beginning to the Lausanne Conference, will be tried to be revealed with documents.