a Anglo-Turkish Relations 1934-1940 In 1939, faced with the German invasion of Czechoslovakia and a growing Italian threat in the Balkans, Turkey and Britain (and later France) signed an alliance in which Turkey linked itself politically and militarily with Britain and France in exchange for financial assistance for its rearmament program. Despite the agreement, however, when the war came to the Mediterranean, Turkey did not become involved. Pre- senting a new interpretation of why the alliance failed, Brock Millman explores Anglo-Turkish relations leading up to the alliance of 1939, taking into account the broader economic, military, and strategic issues. While previous accounts suggest that Turkey entered into the alliance reluctantly, Millman contends that it not only wanted an alliance but sought as close a relationship as Britain would concede in the prewar years. He attributes the failure of the alliance mainly to Britain's lack of support, namely its inability to fit Turkey into its strat- egy in the Mediterranean, its failure to produce a coherent operational plan that could encompass Turkish military co-operation, and its unwillingness to provide Turkey with timely and much-needed finan- cial, material, and industrial assistance. Divided into three parts, The Ill-Made Alliance examines the roots and course of the Anglo-Turkish rapprochement in the years 1934-38; the economic, military, and politic factors in 1938-39 that inhibited development of the emerging alliance to the point where it might have been fully functional; and the collapse of the alliance in 1939-40. BROCK MILLMAN is a sessional lecturer in history, University of British Columbia. This page intentionally left blank The Ill-Made Alliance Anglo-Turkish Relations, I934-I940 BROCK MILLMAN McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo © McGill-Queen's University Press 1998 ISBN 0-7735-1603-4 Legal deposit first quarter 1998 Bibliotheque Rationale du Quebec Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Windsor. McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Millman, Brock, 1963- The ill-made alliance: Anglo-Turkish relations, 1934-1940 Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1603-4 i. Great Britain—Relations-Turkey, z. Turkey— Relations-Great Britain. I. Title. DA47-9.T8M54 1998 317.410561 097-901050-0 Typeset in 10/12. Sabon by True to Type For my parents, Bill and Delores Millman, most of all, and for my sisters, Eronwyn and Carole, for their constant encouragement, and for the late Professor Robert Vogel, a demanding (if forgiving) Ph.D. supervisor This page intentionally left blank Contents Abbreviations / ix Introduction / 3 PART ONE: PARADISO 1934-38 i Inheritance and Context / 15 2. Atatiirk's Gambit, 1934 / 35 3 The Abyssinian Crisis, 1935 / 44 4 Montreaux, 1936 / 69 5 The Search for Accommodation, 1936-38 / 86 PART TWO: PURGATORIO 1938-39 6 The Politics of Dependency / 105 7 The Doldrums, 1938-39 / 143 8 Paradox Postponed: the Joint Guarantee, May 1939 / 162. 9 The Military Convention, October 1939 / 187 10 The Tripartite Treaty, October 1939 / 202 viii Contents PART THREE: INFERNO 1939-40 ii Point d'Armes, point de Turques, 1939-40 / 229 12. Point d'Argent, point d'Armes, 1939-40 / 2,47 13 The Problem With Germany: the Search for a Strategy, 1939-1940 / 2.72 14 Dilemmas in Operational Planning / 294 15 Salvaging the Treaty, 1939-40 / 340 16 The Debacle, 1940 / 361 Conclusion / 374 Appendices / 383 Notes / 395 Bibliography / 499 Index / 513 Abbreviations AAA Air Attache Ankara AA Anti-Aircraft AFC Anglo-French Committee AOC Air Officer Commanding AOCME Air Officer Commanding Middle East Adm Admiralty ASW Anti-Submarine Warfare AT Anti-Tank C in C Med Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean CAB Cabinet CAS Chief of Air Staff CCB Control of Contraband CDS Chief of Defence Staff CFS Central Flying School cm Committee of Imperial Defence CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff CNS Chief of Naval Staff Zimmern, A. "The Testing of the League." Foreign Affairs 14 (Apr cos Chiefs of Staff Subcommittee of the Committee of Imperial Defence D Plans Director of [Naval] Plans DCDS Deputy Chief of Defence Staff DCIGS Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff DCOS Deputy Chiefs of Staff DCNS Deputy Chief of Naval Staff