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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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Telegram of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in the kingdom of Afghanistan k‐ a. Mikhailov in the NKID the USSR*

June 11, 1940

Minister of national economy Abdul Majid informally informed me on his own behalf that afghans are very worried about the current international situation. Italyʹs entry into the war on the side of Germany will lead to the collapse of France in the very near future. England is also unlikely to be able to resist for long. Turkey will certainly enter the war if Italy attacks Egypt or Syria. The afghan government will maintain strict neutrality in all circumstances. Afghans are free from any obligation of military assistance to anyone. The minister sharply condemned the policy of Turkey, which concluded a pact of mutual assistance with Britain and France to the detriment of its national interests and stressed that the Turks did not even consult Iran and Afghanistan on this matter.

If Turkey gets involved in a war, it ‐ without the help of a country like the USSR ‐ will be defeated. Having defeated Turkey, the Germans or Italians can go to war on Iran and Afghanistan. Afghans do not understand why the USSR does not use the situation. Why is the USSR passive in the middle east? Believing in the peaceful intentions of the USSR, Iran and Afghanistan nevertheless ask themselves whether they can find the support of the USSR in the event of a major danger to them and whether the USSR will not change its peaceful intentions towards these countries.

When I asked the minister what essentially caused his conversation with me and what he wants, Abdul said that if we did not object, he could ask his government to start discussing with us the issues of Soviet‐afghan relations in terms of strengthening and developing them on the basis of stabilizing the afghan borders and guaranteeing security in this regard. At the same time, he stressed that this is only about Afghanistan, although, of course, the afghans would be interested in strengthening the current regime in Iran and Turkey. The minister stressed the positive resonance in Afghanistan of Molotovʹs welcoming telegrams to the minister of foreign affairs.

.....

Mikhailov

Avp rf, f. 059, on. 1, p. 322, d. 2215, l. 204‐206.