TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR: NEUTRALITY, DIPLOMACY AND STATECRAFT / İKİNCİ DÜNYA SAVAŞINDA TÜRK DIŞ POLİTİKASI: TARAFSIZLIK, DİPLOMASİ VE DEVLET YÖNETİMİ

OpenAlex · Türkçe

The aim of this article is to revisit the questions of how and why Turkey stayed neutral during the Second World War. It was obvious that neither its economy nor its military capacity was enough powerful to afford such a big war for a long time. However, the role of diplomacy and statecraft cannot be ignored in this process, too. Indeed, Turkish decision-makers as political leaders and diplomats who experienced devastating effects of many wars were not in favor of entering any war. Although some people may think that if Turkey had entered the war on the side when the Allies began to pressure for it, it could gain a lot of advantages after the war. However, as this research article has also demonstrated, such arguments are completely groundless for three additional reasons: When, how and in which side should Turkey join the war while the policies of warring parties and the winning side of the war appeared to change from time to time until towards the end of 1944? At that time none wanted Turkey to participate actively in the war on their side. On the other hand, there is no doubt that if Turkey fought in the war, this would cost many million lives in Turkey, in addition to a ruined country from top to down. If there is a success in this war, they mostly belonged to the leaders who played both of the roles of diplomacy and statecraft according to their connections, experiences and flexible preferences in order to keep Turkey out of the war.