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day. In the spring of 1948, the responsible leaders
of Turkey judged the international situation to be
extremely serious. They shared profoundly and
with deep conviction the opinion of President
Truman that Turkish independence and Turkish
democracy were in danger. They were prepared for
an attack. They were, and are, ready to defend
themselves to the utmost.
”We Turks once said no and we still say no and
we always will say no,” a Turkish spokesman wrote
some time ago in a leading English magazine,
referring to ’”’the dark and heavy clouds” which, in
the spring of 1945, gathered over Turkey. In their
opinion, which the Turks often express, they
rendered great services to the Allied nations during
the war. In the first place, they signed a
nonaggression pact with England in 19839. In the
second place, they prevented, by their mobilization,
Hitler’s advance into the Middle East. Finally, in
February of 1945, they declared war on Germany.
It was then it happened. One of the Allied
Nations, Soviet Russia, suddenly made a sensational
declaration that spring. Kemal Atatürk had at one
time concluded with Lenin a Russian-Turkish
alliance,. This pact had been the cornerstone of
Turkish foreign policy. Now Moscow informed them
that she did not want to renew the pact if Turkey
did not do her a service in return, The Turks were
to give Russia a certain degree of control over the
Dardanelles by granting her bases there and also
they were to cede certain territories near the
frontier to Georgia. The Turks, who are one of the most
nationalistic people in the world, and who proudly
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