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ABSTRACT
The key puzzle that this article explores is how the Great Powers’ wedging strategies and Turkey’s efforts to balance these powers defined complex strategic alignment dynamics during the 1930s and World War II. We posit that in the 1930s, as Turkey strove to balance the European great powers, these powers resorted to wedging strategies to sway Turkey away from any other sphere of influence. During World War II, increasing US engagement in the region compelled Ankara to utilize a ‘dual balancing strategy’ to preserve its neutrality, by balancing between the Axis and the Allies and between the British and the Americans. Concomitantly, both Allies and Axis powers utilized predominantly reward-wedging strategies to keep Turkey away from the opposing bloc. We assert that in rethinking strategic alignment more emphasis should be placed on the interactive nature of wedging process and the role and motives of agency.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Seçkin Barış Gülmez for his valuable comments and Berk Emek for his able assistance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Crawford, “Preventing enemy coalitions,” and “Wedge Strategy.”
2 Oran, ed. Türk Dış Politikası; Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy.
3 Barlas and Güvenç, Turkey in the Mediterranean. For other insightful studies pertaining to this period, see Criss, “Turkey’s Foreign Policies”; Baba and Günsoy, “Between Capability and Foreign Policy”; and Millman “Turkish Foreign and Strategic Policy.”
4 Tekeli and İlkin, Dış Siyaseti ve Askerî Stratejileriyle.
5 Koçak, Türkiye’de Milli Şef Dönemi. A relevant book is also published by Dışişleri Bakanlığı, İkinci Dünya Savaşı Yılları (1939-1946).
6 Deringil, Turkish Foreign Policy during WWII.
7 Weisband, Turkish Foreign Policy, 1943-1945. For this period also see, Weber, The Evasive Neutral; Fox and Fox, The Power of Small States; Altınörs, “Turkish Foreign Policy”; and Van Der Lippe, “A Cautious Balance.”
8 On Turkey-US relations, see Ülman, Türk-Amerikan; Kuniholm, The Origins; McGhee, US-Turkish-NATO; and Yılmaz, Turkish-American Relations. For studies examining Turkey-Britain relations in the interwar era, see Barlas and Gülmez, “Turkish-British Relations,” and MacArthur-Seal, “Turkey and Britain.” For the Cold War period’s bilateral relations see, Bilgin, Britain and Turkey. On Turkish-Soviet relations, see İşçi, Turkey and the Soviet Union.
9 Barlas and Yılmaz, “Managing the Transition.”
10 Martin, “From Balance of Power,” 70.
11 Ibid., 73.
12 Art, “Correspondence,” 183.
13 Walt, “Alliance Formation,” 18.
14 Crawford, “Wedge Strategy,” 38.
15 Saltzman, “Soft Balancing,” 132.
16 Pape, “Soft Balancing,” 36.
17 Saltzman, “Soft Balancing,” 135.
18 Crawford, “Preventing enemy coalitions,” 170.
19 Ibid., 171.
20 Crawford, “Wedge Strategy.”
21 Izumikawa, “To coerce.”
22 France made the greatest amount of loans to the Ottoman Empire.
23 Saltzman, “Soft Balancing,” 132.
24 Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (MAE), Serie E, Levant/Turquie, Vol. 77/1, No. 305, (10 November 1926)
25 Barlas and Güvenç, Turkey in the Mediterranean, 100.
26 Ibid., 117.
27 Friedman and Long, “Soft balancing,” 136.
28 It also had the broader objective of preventing Italian-Bulgarian collaboration in the Balkans. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Arşivleri, A. IV-6, D.54, F. 48-49.
29 Barlas, “Turkish Diplomacy.”
30 Friedman and Long, “Soft balancing,” 129.
31 Cumhurbaşkanlığı Arşivleri, A. IV-6, D.54, F. 102 (1-28).
32 Stone, “The British Government,” 241-2.
33 The National Archives (TNA), (FO) 371/20072, E 269/26/44, 146.
34 TNA, (FO) 371/19041, E 6969/6969/44, 423.
35 Service Historique de la Marine (SHM), Carton 1 BB2/91, Bulletin de Renseignements, No. 491, D-18, April 1-15, 1936.
36 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group (RG) 59, Microcopy T1245, Roll I, March 10, 1937.
37 TNA, FO 371/20862, E 2500/425/44, f. 260-64. German officials were unsuccessful in their visit to Ankara to change the Turkish decision.
38 TNA FO, 371/20862, E 2500/425/44, 275.
39 TNA FO, 371/21917, E 1516/67/44, 325-6.
40 Cumhurbaşkanlığı Arşivleri, A. IV-6, D. 54-2, 41-5.
41 TNA FO, 371/21930, E 2170/135/44, 256-60.
42 Ayın Tarihi 66 (May 1939): 214.
43 On İsmet İnönü, see Heper, İsmet İnönü, and Deringil, Turkish.
44 Deringil, “The preservation,” 30.
45 Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 59.
46 Massigli, La Turquie Devant la Guerre, 498.
47 Oran, Türk Dış Politikası, 430.
48 Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers (FRUS) 1941, The British Commonwealth; The Near East and Africa, vol. III (1941), 835-8. Accessed January 25, 2021. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1941v03/ch15subch1
49 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records of the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA). Record Group 169, 1939-47, 169.9.6 Records of the Turkish Division, General and company files, bills of lading, and commodity files, https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/169.html?_ga=2.20881592.1088068742.1633585232-1412260845.1633585232#169.9.6. (Accessed September 21, 2021)
50 Bryson, Seeds of Mideast Crisis, 146.
51 FRUS 1941, The British Commonwealth; The Near East and Africa, vol. III, 855-8.
52 Oran, Türk Dış Politikası, 445.
53 FRUS 1942, The Near East and Africa, vol. IV, 680. Accessed February 15, 2021. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1942v04/ch46
54 FRUS 1942, The Near East and Africa, vol. IV, 681-2.
55 FRUS 1943, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, vol. IV, 1099-1100. Accessed February 17, 2021. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943 CairoTehran For further details also see National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records of the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA). Record Group 169, 1939-47, Records of the Turkish Division, Minutes and reports of the British-American Coordinating Committee, 1941–45 https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fedrecords/groups/169.html?_ga = 2.20881592.1088068742.1633585232-1412260845.1633585232#169.9.6. (Accessed September 29, 2021)
56 The Deputy Director of Economic Policy Department (Clodius) to the Foreign Ministry, Ankara, September 26, 1941, DGFR, vol. XII, 566-8.
57 For the Turkish text, see “Türkiye ile Almanya Arasında Ticari,” in T. C. Başbakanlık, Neşriyat ve Müdevvenat Genel Müdürlüğü Düstur, 3, 23, 1943, 93-103.
58 FRUS 1942, The Near East and Africa, vol. IV, 781-8. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1942v04/ch46
59 Deringil, Turkish Foreign Policy, 145, and Yılmaz, Turkish- American, 107.
60 Churchill, WWII, 626-32.
61 Aydemir, İkinci Adam, 259.
62 Churchill, WWII, 706-12.
63 Weisband, Turkish Foreign Policy, 153.
64 Churchill, WWII, 193.
65 Koçak, Türk-Alman İlişkileri, 208.
66 Deringil, Turkish Foreign Policy, 68.
67 İnanç, “The Politics of ‘Active Neutrality’,” 907-15.
68 Başbakanlık Cumhuriyet Arşivi (BCA), 30.10/194.40.45, June 30, 1945.
69 Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 74.
70 Art, “Correspondence,” 185.
71 Bryson, Seeds of Mideast Crisis, 154.
72 Crawford, “Wedge Strategy,” 38.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dilek Barlas
Dilek Barlas has been a Professor of History at Koc University since 1993. She received her Ph. D degree in History from the University of Chicago. She is the author of two books, Etatism and Diplomacy in Turkey, 1929-1939: Economic and Foreign Policy Strategies in an Uncertain World (Brill, 1998) and Turkey in the Mediterranean during the Interwar Era (Indiana University Turkish Studies, 2010) (with Serhat Güvenç). She has published many articles on Balkan and Mediterranean history, history of European integration, and Turkish-British-US relations in the twentieth century. Between 2008-2014, Barlas was also the Turkish Representative on The Standing Committee for the Humanities, European Science Foundation (ESF).
Suhnaz Yılmaz
Şuhnaz Yılmaz is a Professor of International Relations and serves as the Dean of College of Administrative Sciences and Economics at Koç University. She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2000 and conducted her post-doctoral studies at Harvard University. She has numerous publications on foreign policy analysis and diplomatic history in prestigious journals such as International Politics, Middle East Journal, Political Science Quarterly, and Energy Research and Social Sciences, as well as a book entitled Turkish-American Relations (1800-1952): Between the Stars, Stripes and the Crescent (Routledge, 2015). She served as the principal investigator of the Horizon 2020 Project FEUTURE on Turkey-European Union relations at Koc University (2017-2019).