British ambitions in the Mediterranean and their effect on the allied quest for Turkish belligerency in WWII
Author(s)
Advisor
Latimer, PaulDate
2020-12Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
475
views
views
282
downloads
downloads
Abstract
Turkish belligerency which was not quite desired by Britain during the World War II
was interwoven with the British ambitions in the Mediterranean including the post-
World War II settlement of the region into the British sphere of influence. The
importance of the Mediterranean and its effect on Anglo-Turkish relations during the
World War II has been narrated through Britain‘s point of view in the literature
considering that the region was one of the life-lines of British Empire. However, the
Eastern Mediterranean was also a primary concern for Turkey. Since the 1930s as the
recent literature confirms, Italy was perceived as the biggest possible threat to
Turkey as all the military preparations were made accordingly by the Turkish state.
The total 4.400 km of Turkish Mediterranean and Aegean coastline combined with
the young Republic‘s obsolete and impotent navy, and the close proximity of
numerous foreign islands, made Turkey equally apprehensive for the situation in the
region since the opening rounds of the war. Thanks to the opening of the Soviet archives, and published British intelligence records alongside the important
secondary sources, we now have a better understanding of Turkey‘s relations with
the major belligerents. With this motivation and along this line of research this thesis
aims to show the relation between Britain‘s Mediterranean strategy and Turkey‘s
belligerency.