Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), on the basis of which the current borders of Turkey were determined, RIA Novosti reports.

“They [threatened] us with Sèvres in 1920 and persuaded us to [accept] Lausanne in 1923. Some tried to deceive us by presenting Lausanne as victory. In Lausanne, we gave away the [now-Greek] islands that you could shout across to. Our mosques and saints are there. We are still struggling about what the continental shelf will be, and what will be in the air and the land. The reason for this is those who sat at the table for that treaty. Those who sat there did not do [us] justice, and we are reaping those troubles right now,” he said, speaking before the heads of village administrations in Ankara.

The Turkish media outlets considered this statement as a concealed criticism against the Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who considered the signing of the Lausanne Treaty as his victory after the Sèvres Treaty, which was unfavorable for Turkey.