MP’s Lausanne Treaty remark sparks row

The controversy that followed New Democracy MP Angelos Syrigos' claim that some articles of the Lausanne Treaty - notably the one on the extent of the military presence on the eastern Aegean islands - were out of date, has brought attention to the uncertainty surrounding the text of the 1923 agreement that established the borders of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. His assessment was that 97% of the Lausanne Treaty is obsolete, while emphasizing that the provision on the borders set then remains clearly in force. His remarks provoked strong reactions from the far-right, as well as from leftist SYRIZA and socialist PASOK. 

"I said it is obsolete because all we are interested in from the Lausanne Treaty to this day is the border restriction provisions… It is a 101-year-old text. It has provisions on how to pay the Ottoman debt, how to exchange prisoners, what to do with the Allied...