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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 the peopleʹs commissar for foreign affairs of the USSR to the peopleʹs commissariat for foreign affairs of the USSR, from Geneva. May 25, 1937

Immediately

1937 g 25 on May.

I had Aras, who on the way met with Inonu, who was returning from London. Aras confirmed the three points that I had agreed with Inonu, adding to this that friendship with the USSR would never depend on a third state. When asked who the idea of the black sea pact came from, about which he spoke with Ostrovsky, Aras answered confusedly, trying to ascribe the initiative to Romania. When asked what pact was in question, Aras replied that he hadn’t thought about it yet, but admitted that the Romanians were mainly interested in recognizing Bessarabia within the framework of such a pact. The pact, according to Aras, should, however, be concluded simultaneously with the western Locarno and the Mediterranean pact. Aras thinks of the Danube agreement as part of Austria, Hungary, the lesser and Balkan entente. Apparently with the aim of joining this agreement, Aras seeks to disrupt the previously proposed Danube agreement without the Balkan entente. He further developed the idea of an extensive eastern pact, including the USSR, France, the lesser and Balkan entente, Poland and Germany, if the latter so desired. Although he said to Ostrovsky that he could do without Poland. Aras told me that the presence of Poland is necessary, because without it, Romania cannot participate in the pact, and therefore France needs to demand that Poland participate in this pact under the threat of breaking the alliance with her.

Aras again justified himself in his past sins, but in fact admitted everything that we pointed out. Apparently, under pressure from England, Aras now speaks with restraint about Italy, with which Turkey allegedly seeks only to avoid friction. England allegedly constantly tells Turkey that she not only does not object to the friendship of the latter with the USSR, but, on the contrary, is glad of this friendship and takes Turkey along with this friendship. I think this is Arasʹs fantasy. He denies receiving new loans from England. He admitted that the oil agreement with Romania is not being danced yet, as a result of which Aras will again go to Bucharest from here. He is ready to arrive in Moscow in the first week of July, and he will tell us the exact date the other day.

Delbos expressed his complete satisfaction with the results of his visit to Brussels. The Belgians confirmed to him everything that he had previously told Eden, and in addition, they agreed to enter into military negotiations, but in secret.

Holst reiterated to Delbosch his satisfaction with the Moscow visit, but pointed out our supposedly over‐arming on the Finnish border.

Litvinov