Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne

Baron Sidney Sonnino

The Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne was an agreement between France, Italy and the United Kingdom, signed at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne on April 26, 1917, and endorsed August 18 – September 26, 1917. It was drafted by the Italian foreign ministry as a tentative agreement to settle its Middle Eastern interest. It was mainly negotiated and signed by the Italian foreign minister Baron Sidney Sonnino, along with the Italian, British and French prime ministers. Russia was not represented in this agreement as the Tsarist regime was in a state of collapse (see Russian Revolution of 1917). The agreement was needed by the allies to secure the position of Italian forces in the Middle East. The goal was to balance the military power drops at the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I as Russian (Tsarist) forces were pulling out of the Caucasus Campaign, even though they were replaced with what would be named as Democratic Republic of Armenian forces.

Background

See also: London Pact and Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire

The representatives of Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy met in London (London Pact) to sign an agreement providing for Italy’s entrance to the First World War. However during the London Pact, Italy’s part in the Middle East was left unsettled, or undecided. The London Pact stated that if the Ottoman Empire was partitioned, Italy should receive a "just share" in the Adana Region. The borders of this occupation were to be decided at a later time.

Application

See also: Turkish War of Independence; Occupation of İzmir; and Paris Peace Conference, 1919

Under its terms France would be allotted the Adana region, while Italy would receive the remainder of southwestern Anatolia, including İzmir (Smyrna). In 1919, the Greek prime minister, Eleuthérios Venizélos, by obtaining the permission of the Paris Peace Conference for Greece to occupy İzmir, overrode the provisions of the agreement despite Italian opposition.

See also

• Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne