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  Selected Secret Documents from Soviet Foreign Policy Documents Archives - 1919 to 1941

Concentrated on 1st and  2nd WW Correspondence and Meetings related to Turkey, Balkans and Iran, with some additions from Afghanistan and India.

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Recording conversations of the temporary attorney of the USSR in Turkey o. I. Nikitnikova with the president of Turkey I. Inonu and the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey sh. Saracoglu *

April 16, 1939 top secret

On April 16, Saracogluʹs personal secretary, having phoned the embassy, said that Mr. Ismet Inonu could receive me in 20 minutes. Exactly at the specified time, that is, at 12 oʹclock. 40 min., I was in the palace. Ismet Inonu greeted me very friendly and simply on the stairs leading to the second floor to his living rooms, and he himself led me to his office.

Having sat me down against himself, he immediately said that he was very excited when he learned from Saracoglu that I wanted to personally convey to him an important message from comrade Molotov **, and therefore now he wanted to find out as soon as possible what was the matter.

Inonu listened with exceptional attention to comrade Molotovʹs proposal and wrote it down word for word. After reading it again and making a few notes, Inonu asked if comrade Molotovʹs message had a more detailed explanation of why Tbilisi or Batumi was planned to be the meeting place for Soviet and Turkish representatives, but not Moscow. At the same time, he noted that in the capitals, in particular in Ankara, it would be more convenient to negotiate from the point of view of opportunities for quick coordination of issues. I replied to Ismet that I do not know about the motives for choosing Tbilisi or Batumi, since nothing is said about this in comrade Molotovʹs message. In any case, if he is interested in this question, I will convey this to comrade Molotov.

After that, Ismet Inonu asked me to convey to comrade Molotov his deep gratitude and sincere greetings and said that he personally (ismet) considered such a meeting and consultation of representatives of the Soviet Union and Turkey very necessary and very useful. Therefore, he will urgently convey the contents of comrade Molotovʹs proposal to the Turkish government, of whose decision he will immediately inform me. At the end of the conversation, Ismet informed me that the Turkish ambassador to Moscow Apaydin had been instructed to conduct negotiations with the Soviet government in Moscow of approximately the same nature. Therefore, he inquired whether comrade Molotov said anything about this in his message. To this I replied that, in my opinion, comrade Molotov, when instructing me to make a message to the president of the Turkish republic, did not yet know about the instructions given to Apaydin by the Turkish government. According to the general impression, ismet Inonu was very happy with the Soviet proposal.

The conversation with the president of the republic lasted 30 minutes. Before the end of the conversation, Ismetʹs wife was present during the conversation, who was very friendly and helpful.

Saracoglu ismet was not invited.

Less than an hour after my conversation with ismet Inonu, Saracoglu, summoning me to his house, reported the following agreed text of the response of the president and the Turkish government to comrade Molotovʹs proposal for transmission to the Soviet government:

“the republican government approves the proposal made by Molotov to Inonu and accepts it. The Turkish government believes that the implementation of this meeting as soon as possible is, as Molotov says, in accordance with the existing international situation. However, the Turkish government considers it more convenient to arrange such a meeting in Ankara, both for reasons of facilitating correspondence and for keeping this meeting somewhat secret. The meeting could also be arranged in Istanbul. Expressing our views on the question of the place of the meeting, we will try with pleasure to take into account any proposal of the Soviet government. ʺ

In addition, Saracoglu requested that the second message of the Turkish government be brought to the attention of Moscow as follows:

“the British and French made us (Turkey) an offer to conclude some kind of alliance. This proposal is currently being studied by us. Turkey

will give England an answer by setting the main conditions of Turkey and demanding the participation of the Soviet Union. ʺ

Having conveyed to me the text of the response of the president and the Turkish government to comrade Molotovʹs appeal, Saracoglu repeated that the president asks to convey his gratitude and greetings to comrade Molotov. Then Saracoglu explained that Ankara or Istanbul are more convenient for negotiations, since, in all likelihood, he, Saracoglu, will conduct them. His departure to Tbilisi or Batumi will cause a lot of noise, and the road itself will take a lot of time. At the same time, the minister said that it would be good if comrade Potemkin came to Ankara.

In response to Saracogluʹs link that negotiations in Ankara could be conducted in a more secret environment, I noticed that the arrival of our representatives to the capital of Turkey would cause no less talk, and therefore Tbilisi or Batumi are more suitable in this regard. A trip to the Caucasus, if the Turkish government wants to keep it secret, could be properly organized. In conclusion, Saracoglu said: ʺif the Turkish representatives had managed to meet in the Caucasus with comrade Stalin, comrade Molotov or comrade Voroshilov, then, of course, the question would have been completely different.ʺ

When Saracoglu was dictating to me a message from the Turkish government regarding the English proposal, I asked him whether Turkey had already given such an answer to England (as Saracoglu told me on April 15 in the evening) or would it (as formulated in the text that Saracoglu had just dictated to me). The minister replied to this that Turkey had not yet given an answer to England but was going to give one.

[temporary] charge dʹaffaires of the USSR in Turkey

O. Nikitnikova

Avp rf, f. Oil, on. 4, p. 31, d. 166, l. 151‐154.