Turkish Neutrality in the Second World War and Relations with the Soviet Union

Bülent Gökay

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 2021, vol. 23, issue 6, 845-853

Abstract: According to official Turkish and Western historiography, following the key victories against the German forces, Soviet leadership changed its position and started putting pressure on Turkey. Accordingly, the Soviet–Turkish relations changed significantly from being considered friendly until March 1945, when Molotov initiated his note denouncing the 1925 Treaty of Friendship with Turkey and demanded a base in the Straits area and the return of Kars and Ardahan to the Soviet Union. Only after such demands, Turkish government decided to move away from the Soviets and requested help from the US. I have several points of reservation about this argument: first, the Soviet–Turkish relations were never very friendly. Essentially, a common enemy incited provisional collaboration between the two. Second, for the leadership of the Turkish Republic, alliance with the Soviet Union was always counted as temporary, and their essential foreign policy aim had always been acceptance by the Western alliance. Third, the Soviet demands regarding the Turkish Straits were in no sense a surprise, a shock. For centuries, the rulers of Russia had wanted some control over the Straits, linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Finally, many accounts focus on the Soviet demands regarding the Straits and Eastern provinces in isolation. The crisis over the so-called Soviet demands and Turkish response happened at a time global interstate system was going through a major transformation: as the Second World War was coming to its end, the American administration had the ambition to impose a New World Order. Former imperial power, British Empire, no longer had the financial and military capacity to hang on to their vast territories.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2021.1935082

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