The renunciation of minority rights and the making of the 1926 civil law: mahzars penned by non-Muslim minorities

Abstract

ABSTRACTCivil rights of the minorities, substantially framed in the Lausanne Peace Treaty in 1923, were subjected to secular regulation with the Civil Code issued in 1926 in Turkey. The annulment of the Lausanne provisions was justified with collective petitions penned by representatives of the non-Muslim communities. The collective petitions, called ‘mahzar’, constituted the legal pretext by which the non-Muslim communities were reconciled with the secularizing civil code of government. This article unravels the manuscripts of ‘mahzars’ and sheds light on the political backdrop whereby non-Muslim minorities renounced their rights in Article 42. Drawing on the scripts of mahzars, it tracks the justification and arguments made by the disclaimers of non-Muslim communities. It also delineates the debate on the act of renunciation by examining the transcripts of the negotiations at Lausanne Peace Conference and the internal and international press. Despite standing for the consent of the non-Muslim minorities, the collective petitions, this article argues, embodied hegemonic means of government to subdue minority rights.