oct 1, 1922 - The Çanak Crisis

Description:

A war scare in September 1922 between the United Kingdom and the Government of the Grand National Assembly in Turkey.

The crisis was caused by Turkish efforts to push the Greek armies out of Turkey and restore Turkish rule in the Allied-occupied territories, primarily in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Eastern Thrace. Turkish troops marched against British and French positions in the Dardanelles neutral zone.

Location: Çanakkale, Turkey
Result: British withdrawal from Anatolia
- Armistice of Mudanya
- British prime minister Lloyd George resigns
- Treaty of Lausanne
- Allied evacuation of Constantinople
- Canada exercises political autonomy from Britain

The crisis raised the issue of who decided on war for the British Empire, and was Canada's first assertion of diplomatic independence from London. Historian Robert Blake says the Chanak incident led to Arthur Balfour's definition of Britain and the dominions as "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of the domestic or internal affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations". In 1931 the UK Parliament enacted Balfour's formula into law through the Statute of Westminster 1931.

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