Swiss make gift of table where it all began

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin presented Turkey with the historic table on which the founding treaty of the Republic was concluded in 1923 at Lausanne. "This table, that is large, strong and solid, is a good symbol of the intense relations between Turkey and Switzerland," said the visiting president. "I’d like to touch the table before I leave."

The historic gift was witness to the creation of the modern Republic, said Turkish President Abdullah Gül, assuring that it would be exhibited in Turkey in the best way.

Turkey has been strictly implementing the Lausanne Treaty for decades that provided it with full sovereign rights over all its territory. According to an anecdote, the secretary of the Lausanne Conference extended a feather quill pen to İsmet Pasha, chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation at the time, but İsmet Pasha refused to take it and instead took a golden pen out of his pocket that he had brought only to put his signature on the landmark agreement.

The treaty also guarantees the rights of minorities. But key European reports from time to time challenge Turkey’s redlines and opens to question the definition of minorities in the multi-ethnic country, given the only recognized minority groups spelled out in the Lausanne Treaty are Jews, Greeks and Armenians.

"One should not forget the Montreux Convention," said Gül, while highlighting that the milestone agreements of Turkish history were concluded in Switzerland. The Montreux Convention of 1936, which governs the passage of military ships that do not have coastal access to the Black Sea, occupied Turkey’s agenda in the wake of the Georgia-Russia war last summer when the U.S. military announced plans to dispatch huge military ships to Georgia through the Turkish straits.

The dispute over the divided island of Cyprus, of great interest to Turkey, was also discussed in Switzerland. The final round of Cyprus talks under the UN auspices was held in the Bürgenstock resort, leading to the twin referenda of a peace plan for reunification of the island’s Turkish and Greek Cypriots. But the plan was voted down by Greek Cypriots.

Couchepin said there was close interaction with Turkey in the culture sphere as well. Turkey is guest of honor at the annual Swiss festival "CultureScapes" in Basel this year and the country will be promoted at the International Book Fair of Geneva next year, he noted.

Political disagreements

But despite the historic links between the two countries, political ties are beyond what is expected. The relations have soured over a number of disagreements, including a controversial Swiss law on the alleged genocide of Armenians as well as claims of money laundering in Swiss banks by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The recent measures announced by Swiss authorities in the fight against terrorism have been far from meeting expectations, Turkish officials earlier said. Switzerland does not blacklist the PKK as a terrorist group.

On the controversial anti-racism law penalizing denial of the alleged genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, Couchepin said late Monday it was a legal matter that was up to judges to interpret.