Turkey

Hitherto, Turkey has maintained a solid barrier against aggression from any quarter, and by so doing, even in the darkest days, has rendered us invaluable service in preventing the spreading of the war through Turkey into Persia and Iraq, and in preventing menace to the oil fields of Abadan, which are of vital consequence to the whole eastern war.

1943, 11 February.

The hopes we cherished of Turkey boldly entering the war in February or March, or at least according us the necessary bases for air action—those hopes faded. After giving ?20,000,000 worth of British and American arms to Turkey in 1943 alone, we have suspended the process and ceased to exhort Turkey to range herself with the victorious United Powers, with whom she has frequently declared that her sympathies lie, and with whom, I think, there is no doubt that her sympathies do lie. The Turks at the end of last year and the beginning of this year magnified their dangers. Their military men took the gloomiest view of Russian prospects in south Russia and in the Crimea.

1944, 24 May.

I have the authority of the Turkish Government to announce here today in the House of Commons that on the basis of the Anglo-Turkish Alliance, Turkey has broken off all relations with Germany. This act infuses new life into the Alliance. No one can tell whether Germany or Bulgaria will attack Turkey. If so, we shall make common cause with her and shall take the German menace as well as we can in our stride. Turkish cities may receive the kind of bombardment we have never shrunk from here. Herr von Papen may be sent back to Germany to meet the blood bath he so narrowly escaped at Hitler’s hands in 1934. I take no responsibility for that.

1944, 2 August.

This was the culmination - late but satisfying - of Churchill’s efforts to bring Turkey into the war on the side of the Allies. German Ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen was not executed but received the Knight’s Cross. Acquitted at Nuremberg, he lived until 1969.

Turkey became conscious of unexpected military weakness after the war had started in earnest on account of the influence—the decisive influence—of new weapons with which she was quite unprovided, and which we were not in a position to supply. As these weapons exercise a decisive effect on the modern battlefield, the Turks felt that they could no longer confide their safety to their renowned infantry and to the artillery of the last war.

1945, 27 February.