A Systemic Analysis of the Cold War and Turkey's
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS OF THE COLD WAR AND TURKEY’S POSTWAR DRIVE TO THE WEST A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY TOLGAHAN AKDAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AUGUST 2014 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bağcı Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Türkeş Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. İlhan Uzgel (AU/IR) Prof. Dr. Mustafa Türkeş (METU/IR) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Bedirhanoğlu (METU/IR) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Tolgahan Akdan Signature : iii ABSTRACT A SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS OF THE COLD WAR AND TURKEY‘S POSTWAR DRIVE TO THE WEST Akdan, Tolgahan M.S, The Department of International Relations Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mustafa TürkeĢ August 2014, 214 pages This thesis attempts to account for the primary dynamics behind Turkey‘s postwar drive to the West. It offers a conceptualization of the Cold War as an inter-systemic conflict, which then enables this study to integrate the geopolitical relations between Turkey and the Soviet Union in a systemic framework. In this regard, it suggests that the geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and Turkey should be conceived of not as an ―ontologically autonomous‖ ahistorical geopolitical tension but rather as a derivative of the Cold War as a wider systemic conflict. Therefore, this thesis explores the mainstream and radical approaches on the Cold War and tries to locate the geopolitical conflict between Turkey and the Soviet Union into framework of inter-systemic conflict and thus show the systemic character of Turkey‘s drive to the Western alliance, which amounted to a profound socio- economic integration into the international capitalist system. Keywords: The Cold War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Union, the United States, Turkey iv ÖZ SOĞUK SAVAġ VE TÜRKĠYE‘NĠN BATIYA YÖNELĠMĠNĠN SĠSTEMĠK BĠR ANALĠZĠ Akdan, Tolgahan Yüksek Lisans, Uluslararası ĠliĢkiler Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Mustafa TürkeĢ Ağustos 2014, 214 sayfa Bu tez, Türkiye‘nin Batı‘ya savaĢ sonu yöneliminin arkasındaki ana dinamikleri saptayarak bu yönelimin niteliğini tanımlamaya çalıĢmaktadır. Türkiye ile Sovyetler Birliği arasındaki jeopolitik iliĢkileri sistemik bir çerçeveye entegre etmeyi sağlayacak Soğuk SavaĢ‘ın sistemler arası bir mücadele olarak kavramsallaĢtırılmasını önermektedir. Bu bakımdan, Türkiye ile Sovyetler Birliği arasındaki jeopolitik gerginliğin ―ontolojik olarak otonom‖ bir tarihdıĢı jeopolitik gerginlik gibi kavranması yerine bu gerginliğin daha geniĢ bir sistemik çatıĢma olarak Soğuk SavaĢ bağlamında okunması gerektiğini belirtmektedir. Bundan dolayı da, bu tez, Soğuk SavaĢ ile ilgili anaakım ve radikal yaklaĢımları inceleyerek, Türkiye ile Sovyetler Birliği arasındaki jeopolitik çatıĢmayı sistemlerarası çatıĢma çerçevesine yerleĢtirmek suretiyle uluslararası kapitalist sisteme derin sosyo- ekonomik bir entegrasyon anlamına gelen Türkiye‘nin Batı ittifakına yöneliminin sistemik karakterini göstermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Soğuk SavaĢ, BolĢevik Devrimi, Sovyetler Birliği, Amerika BirleĢik Devletleri, Türkiye v To the men and women who believe that another world is possible vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Mustafa TürkeĢ for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of this thesis. Without his help this thesis would definitely be incomplete. Secondly I would also like to thank my examining committee members, Prof. Dr. Ġlhan Uzgel and Asoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Bedirhanoğlu for their suggestions as they helped me refine my work. I am thankful to my friends Çağlar Dölek, Gözde Emen, Öykü ġafak, Soner Çubukçu, with whom I shared much throughout the writing process of this thesis. They were always ready to help me whenever I needed them. My thanks are also due to Ahmet Akkaya, Burak Erdinç, CoĢkun Musluk and ÇağdaĢ ÖzeniĢ, who ardently suported my efforts to finalize this study. Last but not the least; I am grateful to my wife, Reyhan Betül Akdan, who has lived with me through this process and shared in my joys and sorrows. To her, many thanks and much love. None of the following would have been possible without the contributions of these precious people and I am immeasurably grateful. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM...........................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... v DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: Defining the problematic ............................................... 1 2. A THEORETICALLY INFORMED HISTORICAL APPRAISAL OF THE COLD WAR LITERATURE IN THE US AND WESTERN EUROPE ..... 14 2.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 14 2.2. Into the Mainstream: Debating the origins of the Cold War ................ 16 2.2.1. Conservative reaction: Orthodoxy ............................................. 17 2.2.2. Challenging the moral superiority of the US: Revisionism ....... 23 2.2.3. Revitalizing the Orthodoxy: Post-revisionist ―consensus‖ ........ 29 2.3. Into the radical approaches: Debating the nature of the Cold War ...... 32 2.3.1. Cold War as intra-systemic conflict ........................................... 32 2.3.2. Cold War as inter-systemic conflict ........................................... 40 2.4. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 45 3. A THEORETICALLY INFORMED HISTORICAL APPRAISAL OF THE COLD WAR LITERATURE IN TURKEY ................................................. 47 3.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 47 3.2. Addressing the sources of conflict between Turkey and the Soviet Union: Mainstream approaches ................................................................... 51 viii 3.2.1. A prototype of the official Turkish foreign policy approach: The memoirs of Feridun Cemal Erkin ......................................................... 53 3.2.2. Soviet expansionism forcing Turkey to the West ...................... 64 3.2.3. Soviet search for security ........................................................... 80 3.3. Addressing the character of Turkey‘s relationship with the West: Radical approaches ...................................................................................... 88 3.3.1. Rise of the left as a new political force ...................................... 89 3.3.2. The leftist currents in the 1960s ................................................. 96 3.3.3. Reflections on the foreign policy analysis ............................... 107 3.3.4. Turkey playing the game of Anglo-American imperialism: Left Kemalism ........................................................................................... 111 3.3.5. Turkey allying itself to the Western capitalism: Class-based approach ............................................................................................. 123 3.4. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 133 4. THE COLD WAR AND TURKEY‘S DRIVE TO THE WEST ............... 137 4.1. Introduction ........................................................................................ 137 4.2. The nature and origins of the Cold War ............................................. 139 4.3. The strategies of the Soviet Union in pre- and postwar periods ........ 146 4.4. The character of Turkey‘s postwar integration into the West ............ 161 4.5. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 180 5. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 182 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 187 APPENDICES A. TURKISH SUMMARY .............................................................................. 204 B. TEZ FOTOKOPĠSĠ ĠZĠN FORMU .............................................................. 215 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: Defining the problematic Having dealt with it intensively in the second half of the twentieth century, political historians in Turkey have long regarded