Week 7&8 - Part 2 Relative Autonomy and WWII

Turkey’s Balancing Game/Active Neutrality

Turkey’s Two Objectives 1)Avoid getting emboiled in the conflict 2)Avoid occupation

3 Turning Points of the War : Turkish Perspective 1)France’s early defeat: 1) Spread to Med 2) The arrival of German Army to Turkish frontier (March 1941) 2)German attack on the USSR ( June 1941): Freed from ‘Policy Syndrome’ 3)German defeat at Stalingrad (February 1943): A resurgence of Russian threat ?

2 Features Direcly Affacted TFP 1)Frequent & abrupt changes: On the spot with demands from both sides. 2)The new conditions at the end & 2 blocks: Difficult for SMP Turkey to find the balance

FP of the Period 1)Basic Objectives 2)Basic Tactics (Legal Arguments, Taking advantage of the differences) 3)Domestic Policies as Instruments of FP

Dış ticaret verisi gelecek

Anglo-French-Turkish Treaty of 1939 (Ankara Pact) – The Birth of Tripartiate Alliance British and French assistance in the event of aggression against the latter and also provided for Turkish aid in the event of “an act of aggression, committed by a European power and leading to war in the Mediterranean Sea involving France and the United Kingdom.” Turkey was also obligated to give assistance to Greece and Romania in the event that Great Britain and France were drawn into war. Protocol No. 2 attached to the treaty declared that “the obligations undertaken by Turkey as a result of the aforementioned treaty can not compel Turkey to take action the result or consequence of which would be to draw it into armed conflict with the USSR.”

German & Soviet Demands ( ) Soviet demands on Straits As Germany prepared to invade Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941, German troops arrived at the Bulgarian border, and demanded permission to pass through its territory. On March 1, 1941, ‘Bulgaria’ signed the Axis Pact, and so officially joined the Axis powers.

Turkish-Nazi German Friendship (Neutrality) Pact ( ) Turkey managed to keep Germany out of her borders by adopting a pro- German attitude between 1941 and For Hitler, Turkish neutrality, crucial for the preservation of the German army’s right wing on the eve of an attack against the USSR. In that way, possible British help for the Soviets would have been blocked. Along with neutrality, Turkey also agreed to supply chromium, a critical raw material used in weaponry manufacture, for three consecutive years.

Operation Barbarossa (22 June – 5 December 1941) The largest military operation in world history in both manpower and casualties. Its failure was a turning point in the Third Reich's fortunes. Opened up the Eastern Front, to which more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history.

Allied powers’ demands & Conferences ( ) Casablanca (12-24 January 1942), Washington (12-26 May 1943), Quebec (2-14 August 1943), Moscow (19-30 October 1943), Cairo (22-26 November 1943; 4-6 December 1943) Tehran (28 November to 1 December 1943) Yalta (4-11 February 1945) Potsdam (July-August 1945)

The Quebec Conference Churchill defended the view that a second front had to be opened in the Balkans through Turkish participation to the war. Nevertheless, on each occasion the view that the second front had to be opened through Normandy in Western Europe prevailed amongst the other allies.

The Cairo Conference (Hakkı,2007) The Turkish side rejected the demand for British bases on her soil, arguing that this would inevitably lead to a war with Germany. As part of their delaying strategy, Turkish diplomats gave Churchill a long list of requested military machinery which could take several years to supply. At a certain point, Churchill lost patience and warned Menemencioglu that ‘unless Turkey made use of that final opportunity to side with the future victors, it would be deprived of the chance to sit at the winners’ table later on and all it would end up doing would be wandering along the corridors as a mere member of the audience’.

The Second Cairo Conference (December 4–6, 1943) Addressed Turkey's possible contribution to the Allies in World War II Inonu managed to convince Roosevelt and Churchill that Turkey would not be ready on time for a major operation intended to take place soon. Both Roosevelt and İnönü got what they wanted, while Churchill was a bit disappointed, because his belief that an active Turkish participation in the war would quicken the German defeat by hitting their "soft underbelly" in the southeast.

Turkey eventually joined the war on the side of the Allies on 23 February 1945, after it was announced at the Yalta Conference that only the states which were formally at war with Germany and Japan by 1 March 1945 would be admitted to the United Nations

The USSR’s Black Sea Fleet was bottled up in the Black Sea. It had to use the narrow waterway through Turkey – the Dardanelles – to get into the Mediterranean Sea. Dissatisfied with the Turkish straits regime, in June 1945, Moscow called for joint Soviet-Turkish defense of the straits and the installation of Soviet bases. These demands were coupled with territorial claims over the eastern Turkish provinces. Soviet Demands

Turkey’s isolation against Soviet threat coming to an end ? 1)British note that the Tripartite Alliance of 1939 still binding. (February 1946) 2)American battleship Missouri’s visit to Istanbul, carrying Turkish ambassador Münir Ertegün’s body. (April 5,1946)