Switzerland's famed neutral status in global affairs made it a primary destination to host parties to the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. As Türkiye prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the treaty that put the final touches on its current borders, Switzerland opened the doors for supporters of the terrorist group PKK.
Thousands of people waving flags and posters of PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan demonstrated outside the building where the treaty was signed on Saturday, two days before the anniversary of the treaty. They denounced the treaty that cemented Türkiye's independence and sovereignty.
For PKK, which killed thousands of people since the 1980s in Türkiye, the treaty ended the dream of what it claimed to fight for a Kurdish state (with territories that Türkiye should have ceded in Lausanne according to the detractors).
As the Swiss police watched, demonstrators loyal to the PKK marched through Lausanne before reaching the Palais de Rumine, where the treaty was signed. Most carried so-called flags of PKK which is recognized as a terrorist group by much of the international community, including the European Union and the United States.
The Conference of Lausanne opened in November 1922 to negotiate a new agreement to replace the 1920 Treaty of Sevres between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire, which Türkiye no longer recognized under its new leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who went on to found the Republic of Türkiye.
Lausanne was chosen primarily because of Swiss neutrality and because it was quickly accessible by the Orient Express train which linked Paris with Istanbul. The conference, with Britain, France, Italy and Türkiye as the leading players, ran from November to February, and again from April to July. The new Italian leader Benito Mussolini addressed the talks.
The treaty resulted in population exchanges between Türkiye and Greece. It allowed for unrestricted civilian passage through the Turkish straits.
Eastern Anatolia became part of modern-day Türkiye and in return, Türkiye gave up its Ottoman-era claims to Syria and Iraq to the south. The treaty effectively replaced the Treaty of Sevres for Türkiye which would pave the way for an independent "Kurdistan" on present-day Turkish territories, effectively achieving what the separatist PKK has tried for decades.
Switzerland's Turkish community is planning its treaty commemorations in October around the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, with concerts and conferences.
In June, PKK supporters have staged another event, this time in Zurich, to the chagrin of Türkiye which previously protested the country for allowing pro-PKK groups to hang an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and unfurled banners in the city, calling for Erdoğan's murder. In 2017, supporters of the terrorist group unfurled a banner calling for the murder of Erdoğan outside the parliamentary building in Bern.
A Swiss court released four defendants who were behind the incident last year. Also last year, a group of PKK supporters tried to attack a Turkish festival in Basel, and six people were injured when the group disrupted a children's event, throwing iron barriers at the venue at participants.
The terrorist group wields influence in most European countries under the guise of what they call the PKK's fight for "Kurdish self-rule." It tries to legitimize a campaign of violence that has claimed thousands of lives across Türkiye since the 1980s under "associations" in Europe that seek to draw sympathy to their cause.