Rethinking The Turkish Neutral Diplomacy During The Second World War

Why Turkey did carry out the neutral diplomacy in the Second World War and why she could maintain neutrality were two different problems.The current researches could divide into two aspects:one of the researches was to explore the Turkish national policy,and the other was to explore the external factors of Turkey.The external factor was that exploring the competition in the Near East and striving for to Turkey between Axis and Allies.However,there were no consistent conclusions of internal and external factors.From the perspective of Turkey,there were three reasons of Turkey carried out the neutrality diplomacy:Pacifism policy since the Turkish Republic was founded;Turkish disastrous defeat in the World War I;Turkey would not to be drawn into the new World War because her economy and military were not powerful.From the perspective of striving for Turkey between Axis and Allies,Germanic endeavor was not equilibrium with British?American and Soviet's efforts so that Turkish attitude towards the Axis and Allies was constantly moving according to the situation.From the consequence of Turkish diplomacy,it was not only beneficial to Turkey,but also to Allies.However,this kind of diplomacy also had some questions that we must contemplate.Firstly,Turkey hoped to maintain neutral policy,but she maybe couldn't come true this dream in the situation at that time;secondly,Turkey maintained the strict neutrality until February,1945 because of Turkish leaders had not the ability to foresee future that the neutral policy was a best choice for her.Last but not least,Why the Turkey did not declare a war on Germany and Italy in the early stages.The foothold of this article was to investigate the choice of Turkish diplomacy in different stages.Firstly,the article analyzed the background of the Turkish neutral diplomacy.This segment concluded Turkish national conditions and her diplomatic policy maybe had a certain degree of uncertainty and challenges on the eve of the Second World War;The domestic challenges of Turkey's neutral diplomacy at the beginning of the Second World War.Then,Turkish diplomacy during Second World War was divided into two stages:Turkey's neutral diplomacy before 1942;The change of Turkey's neutral diplomacy during late Soviet-German War.The last segment of my paper focused on the reasons?pros and cons?significance and influence of Turkish neutral diplomacy.The purport of my paper was that although Turkey mediated between the Britain,the United States,the Soviet Union,Germany and other countries in the Second World War,the direction and focus of her efforts were different and she encountered setbacks and achieved rewarded were also not same in different stages.To maintain her own safety,Turkey's leaders were very cautious.It was unfair for Turkey that a lot of countries deemed that Turkey played a balance with the Two Groups,so they denounced Turkey.The Republic of Turkey was founded only 16 years and her economical and military strength were not powerful,so it was appropriate that Turkey choice neutral policy in the early of the Second World War.Turkey wanted to resist German,but she couldn't get the supports from British and France.She wanted to close to the Britain and United States,but she was suspicious to Soviet.It was a compelling choice about Turkish "swing" diplomatic policy and it had her deep-rooted reasons.