it nonetheless did so secretly.

In April 1935, the Turkish government dispatched a lengthy diplomatic note to the signatories of the Treaty of Lausanne proposing a conference to agree a new regime for the Straits and requested that the League of Nations authorise the reconstruction of the Dardanelles forts. In the note, Turkish Foreign Minister Tevfik Rüstü Aras explained that the international situation had changed greatly since 1923. Europe had then been moving towards disarmament