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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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Record of the conversation between the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Turkey and the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey Aras. June 11, 1937

June 1937

Aras showered me with pleasantries, saying that Ataturk told him a lot about me and about his satisfaction from our meeting.

I asked if he had agreed with comrade Litvinov about the date of his arrival in Moscow. Aras said that the exact date in Geneva had not been set and that he asked me to inform Moscow of my intention to be on July 5th. Shukru kaya will go directly from Turkey. One of the vicechairmen of the CHP may go with him [1].

Aras did not speak much about his visit to Romania. He pointed out to Antonescu that the constant exchange of visits between Bucharest and Warsaw makes an unpleasant impression in Turkey. Antonescu assured him that those visits that are being made on the initiative of Poland should not be considered as any demonstrations directed against third states, in particular the USSR. Aras himself had the impression that there was nothing serious behind this.

Aras believes that the Tatarescu government is going through the last months. Over the next four months, power will pass to the Tsaranists. However, there can be no question of returning Titulescu, since this is unacceptable for the king. If the Tsaranists insist on the inclusion of Titulescu, they will not be able to come to power.

Aras does not yet have information about Neurathʹs trip, but he is quite calm about Yugoslavia and is sure that Stojadinovich will not agree to any combinations with Germany. Yugoslavia values its relations with Turkey very much and is well aware of the fact that support for German policy would mean the end of the Yugoslav‐Turkish friendship.

Aras is less calm about the Bulgarians. He believes that the main purpose of Neuharth’s trip was not Belgrade, but Sofia. Although there is still no information from Sofia, he does not rule out the possibility that Neurath was negotiating with the Bulgarians on military cooperation. Aras fears that Germany will want, with Bulgariaʹs help, to create military bases for itself on the black seacoast. Today Aras had Greek and Romanian envoys, with whom Aras discussed such a possibility and said that Turkey could not remain indifferent to this, because the appearance of Germans in the black sea is completely unacceptable for the Turks.

Aras is convinced that Neuharth’s trip to Budapest cannot produce serious results for German foreign policy. Aras had just been to Hungary himself and had come to the conviction that the Hungarians were taking a restrained attitude towards Germany. Aras, in a conversation with Kanya, advised on the issue of arming Hungary not to take the path of unilateral action. He convinced Kanya that it would be advisable to conclude a bilateral agreement with his neighbor on the issue of armaments. Aras believes that the soil is ripe for this and promised Kanye his assistance.

Aras is pleased with the agreement with France on the [Alexandretta] Sandjak, which will eliminate the protracted conflict. Now, he said, a new era will begin in Franco‐Turkish relations. On June 14, the [agreement on] Sandjak will be ratified by parliament. The territorial disputes between Iraq and Iran have not yet been settled, as a result of which the Asian pact will not be signed during Arasʹs trip.

I asked Aras if there was anything new about the German deMarche on the straits. Aras said that there is nothing new. The Turks answered the German note, and that was the end of the matter. I asked if the Germans had come forward with some new note or memorandum. Aras replied categorically that no.

Plenipotentiary of the USSR in Turkey

M. Karsky

 

[1] peopleʹs republican party.