Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2010 The Soviet Influence on Turkish Foreign Policy (1945-1960) Murat Ulgul Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES THE SOVIET INFLUENCE ON TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY (1945-1960) By MURAT ULGUL A Thesis submitted to the Interdisciplinary Program in Russian and East European Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2010 The members of the committee approve the thesis of Murat Ulgul defended on March 16, 2010. __________________________________ Jonathan Grant Professor Directing Thesis __________________________________ Michael H. Creswell Committee Member __________________________________ Dala L. Smith Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________ Lee Metcalf, Chair, Interdisciplinary Program in Russian and East European Studies _____________________________________ David W. Rasmussen, Dean, College of Social Sciences The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii Dedicated to Mehmet and Hidayet Ulgul, For the strong love and firm support they always give iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................ vi 1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 Turkey-Russian Relations before the Great War .......................... 3 1.2 The Beginning of Turkish-Soviet Relations ................................. 7 1.3 Problems under the Guise of Friendship ....................................... 12 1.3.1 Turkey’s Relations with Western States and Organizations 14 1.3.2 Communist Activities in Turkey ........................................ 15 1.3.3. Regime on the Straits ........................................................ 16 2. The Second World War and Soviet Demands in 1945 .......................... 21 2.1 Moscow Negotiations ................................................................... 21 2.2 Soviet Activities during the Nazi-Soviet Collaboration ............... 25 2.3 End of the Second World War and Soviet Demands .................... 29 2.4 Potsdam Conference ..................................................................... 40 2.5 Evaluation of Soviet Demands...................................................... 43 3. Turkey’s Security Seeking against the Soviet Union ............................ 46 3.1 The Straits Question ...................................................................... 47 3.2 Turkey’s Struggle for Western Protection against the Soviet Union 52 3.2.1 Step 1: Economic Help ...................................................... 53 3.2.1.1 The Truman Doctrine ........................................... 53 3.2.1.2 The Marshall Plan ................................................ 57 3.2.2 Step 2: Military Cooperation – NATO and Turkey ........... 60 3.2.2.1 Turkish Demand for Security Arrangement with US 60 3.2.2.2 The Korean War and its Effects on Turkey ......... 64 3.2.2.3 Soviet Reaction to Turkish Entrance into NATO 67 3.3 Conclusion .................................................................................... 69 4. Turkey’s Bloc Policies against the Soviet Union .................................. 73 4.1 Stalin’s Death and Soviet Renunciation on its Demands.............. 75 4.2 Turkey and the Containment Policy ............................................. 76 4.2.1 The Balkan Pact ................................................................. 77 4.3 Middle East in the New Turkish and Soviet Foreign Policies ...... 79 4.3.1 Change in Turkish Middle East Policy and the Baghdad Pact 80 4.3.2 Change in Soviet Middle East Policy ................................ 85 4.4 Soviet Russia and Turkey in the Middle Eastern Crises ............... 89 iv 4.4.1 Suez Crisis ......................................................................... 90 4.4.2 Syria Crisis ......................................................................... 92 4.5 On the Way to the Military Coup of 1960 .................................... 96 4.6 U-2 Crisis and Military Coup in Turkey ....................................... 99 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 102 REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ..................................................................... 117 v ABSTRACT For the Turkish foreign policy, the years between 1945 and 1960 constitute a period in which certain political policies that had long-term effects were followed and relations with other countries underwent fundamental changes. In this time period, despite limited means and hard conditions, Turkey joined the Western Bloc and became one of the active participants of the Cold War because of its importance and the threat perception it felt from the Soviet Union based on its geopolitical situation. In this study, the real affect of the Soviet threat as posed to Turkish sovereignty and territorial integrity during the 15-year period is analyzed. To this effect, the research is divided into two periods. The first period consists of the years between 1945 and 1952, where Soviet effects on Turkish foreign policy were at their zenith, although official Soviet-Turkish relations were rare in contrast to other periods explored in this study. The key characteristics of this period are that Turkish foreign policy was extremely affected by the phoniness of Soviet-Turkish relations in the interwar period and the Soviet threat that took place between 1939 and 1947. Because of these conditions, in spite of the fact that the Soviet threat to Turkey diminished after 1947, Turkish foreign policy diversified and the main objective of Turkish policy-makers transitioned into a goal to join all economic, political and military organizations founded by the Western Bloc. This endeavor swung a punch at the economic, social and political evolution that had took place from the founding of the country and laid substantial groundwork for Turkish foreign policy after 1952, in spite of American economic, political and military provisions. The second period lasts from the point of Turkey’s entrance into NATO and Soviet renunciation of their demands on Turkish territory and Straits to the Turkish military coup of 1960. These years represent the period in which official Turkish-Soviet relations intensified while the Soviet effect on Turkish foreign policy was nadir. Characteristics of this period include the shift to national interests of the Republic of Turkey as the top priority, replacing the search for security against the Soviet threat that had been prevalent in the previous period. These national interests amounted to the need to be a regional power in the Balkans and the Middle East – which had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries – as well as recognizing the vi economic development in Turkey. To reach these aims, Turkish politicians wanted to create in the populace the notion that the Soviet threat had not disappeared for Turkey or the Middle East. This planting of information heralded the second break in the Turkish evolution process through the Turks alteration from their traditional behavior pattern which was returning to the balance of power policy as soon as the threat vanished. However, the new Turkish policies did not result in economic development and their goal to be a regional power and so, decision-makers implemented policies inconsistent with the Turkish past and created more breaks in the evolution process. Another argument presented in the study is that during this early post-war period Turkish-Soviet relations were lived in the shadows of Turkish-American relations and more importantly, American-Soviet relations; because of this, the Soviet effect on Turkish foreign policy grew weaker with each passing year. The subject of this study in not Soviet-Turkish relations but Soviet effects on Turkish foreign policy between 1945 and 1960 because this study incorporated and benefited largely from Turkish and American sources . To simply title this study Soviet-Turkish relations it would lack Soviet point of view and its historical validity would by doubted. This is not to discredit Turkish-American relations that are highly important in order to decipher the underlying effects of the relations clearly. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The years between 1945 and 1960 constitute a period of transformation in Turkish domestic and foreign policies. During this time, Turkey accepted and successfully applied a multi-party system in the 1950 election, acknowledged liberal economic policies, became allies with the United States- of whom Turkey had almost no relationship with prior to WWII- and as a result of this relationship, were one of the most active participants in the Cold War, a policy contradictory to the “peace-demanding” Turkey of the interwar period. A prevalent argument towards the reason for these new Turkish policies was the Soviet threat to Turkish independence and territory. Because the Soviet Union demanded land and bases from Turkey following their peaceful relations in the interwar period, Turkey committed to the bloc policies as a small state with a common border to the leader of