First World War Peace Treaties, Citizenship Issues and Fascist Racial Laws

During the Libyan campaign some Aegean islands belonging to the Ottoman Empire were occupied by Italy. The Ouchy treaty subsequently specified how these islands would have to be returned, but the First World War interrupted the fulfilment of these provisions. The Lausanne treaty finally gave jurisdiction on these islands, known as the "Dodecanese", to Italy. With the official name of "Italian Islands of the Aegean Sea" they formed a territory under a governor chosen by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. On the basis of the Lausanne Treaty, Italian citizenship in a somewhat restricted form was granted to the local population. The racial laws, promulgated on November 17th 1938 with the Royal Decree 1728 contained two articles which specified that citizenship granted to Jews after January 1st, 1919 was revoked and that Jews under those conditions would be expelled from Italian territories. The Lausanne treaty having been signed after that date, these provisions should have to be applied to the Dodecanese Jews. This article exhibits here for the first time a circular signed by Ciano as Minister of Foreign Affairs, which blocks the application of the articles mentioned above to all those who had obtained Italian citizenship through international treaties: this answers a query which came up in a previous article (G. Saban, "I trattati di pace alla fine della prima guerra mondiale e le leggi razziali", Mondo contemporaneo, 1, 2008, pp. 95-122).

Keywords: Treaty of Ouchy, Lausanne Treaty, Dodecanese, restricted citizenship, racial laws, cancellation of citizenship

Giacomo Saban, I trattati di pace della prima guerra mondiale, il problema della cittadinanza e le leggi razziali fasciste in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 3/2012, pp 149-159, DOI: 10.3280/MON2012-003005