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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 of the conversation of the deputy peopleʹs commissioner for foreign affairs of the USSR Potemkin with the ambassador of Turkey in the USSR z. Apaydin

May 13, 1939 secret

Apaydin showed me a telegram from Saracoglu, which entrusted the ambassador to convey to the Soviet government the gratitude of the government of the Turkish republic for the friendly contact established during our last negotiations in Ankara, and for the useful work we carried out in our meetings with statesmen of Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. After that Apaydin asked me to acquaint him with the negotiations that took place in Ankara, Sofia, Bucharest and Warsaw.

I informed Apaydin about what interested him. At the same time, I emphasized that in pursuance of ismet Inonu’s request, I brought to the attention of the Bulgarian government about the firm determination of the Turkish government to coordinate its policy with the USSR in everything and to implement, in inseparable connection with it, a common program of ensuring peace and countering aggression in the Balkans and the black sea. Apaydin received this message with great satisfaction.

At the end of the conversation, Apaydin told me that the next task in Soviet‐Turkish relations he considers the conclusion of a pact of mutual assistance between the USSR and Turkey. The ambassador knows that his government holds the same point of view. Apaydin asks to give him the opportunity to participate in this matter, which he would consider the best completion of his activity as an ambassador to the USSR. Let the pact negotiations take place in Moscow. Here the pact must be signed. I replied to Apaydin that from conversations in Ankara I knew about the intention of the Turkish government to conclude a pact of mutual assistance with the USSR. If this question were put before us officially, the government of the USSR could discuss it. In the event of an agreement in principle on both sides, nothing would seem to prevent the appropriate negotiations from being held in Moscow, as the ambassador wishes.

 V. Potemkin wua rf, f oil, on. 4, p 24, d.7, l. 29‐30.