After the defeat of its army by the Turkish nationalists of Kemal Ataturk on the Asia Minor front, Greece was summoned to the negotiating table. The Allied Powers (England, France and Italy) along with other countries (Balkan and others), and naturally Turkey, convened a conference at Lausanne, Switzerland, in November 1922. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. took part under different terms: the former as observers, the latter particularly concerned about maintaining the status of the Dardanelles. The progress of the negotiations within the framework of the conference was laced with serious difficulties owing to the wide range of matters under discussion. The peace talks focused on demarcating the territorial claims of the countries involved, as well as the settlement of relations in the sectors of public finance and economy.
The final act, in combination with individual special agreements, was to redefine the territorial profile of the region, which for centuries had formed part of the Ottoman empire, and to provide a process which might resolve the problems of the past. The basic issues involving Greece which were included on the conference agenda concerned eastern Thrace, the islands of the eastern Aegean and the exchange of populations. The treaty was signed on 24 June 1923 and, even though it was generally accepted with satisfaction, its impact precipated processes on the Greek political scene which had begun much earlier.