The Ill-Made Alliance: Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1934-1940

In 1939, faced with the German invasion of Czechoslovakia and a growing Italian threat in the Balkans, Turkey and Britain (and later France) signed an alliance in which Turkey linked itself politically and militarily with Britain and France in exchange for financial assistance for its re-armament program. Despite the agreement, however, when the war came to the Mediterranean, Turkey did not become involved. Presenting an interpretation of why the alliance failed, this study explores Anglo-Turkish relations leading up to the alliance of 1939, taking into account the broader economic, military, and strategic issues. While previous accounts suggest that Turkey entered into the alliance reluctantly, this work contends that it not only wanted an alliance, but sought as close a relationship as Britain would concede in the pre-war years. Divided into three parts, the book examines: the roots and course of the Anglo-Turkish rapprochement in the years 1934-38; the economic, military, and political factors in 1938-39 that inhibited development of the emerging alliance to the point where it might have been fully functional; and the collapse of the alliance in 1939-40.