Abstract:
| | Turkey and Romania, two coastal countries bordering the Black Sea, share a rich history of challenges, conflicts, cooperation, and mutual understanding. After WWI, Romania, the largest country in the Balkans and situated near the Soviet sphere of influence, focused on preserving its post-war borders, strengthening its domestic structure, and building a strong economy. After the foundation of the new Turkish Republic in October 1923, relations between the two countries significantly improved shortly after the Peace Treaty of Lausanne, to which Romania was also a signatory. The period between 1923 and 1942 may be called the Ataturk Era in Turkish-Romanian relations. This period, which concluded shortly before WWII with the passing of the founder of the Modern Turkish Republic Ataturk in November 1938, faced challenges such as rising revisionism, Soviet ambitions concerning the territories of both nations and the Turkish Straits, the migration of Turkish people, in particular Muslims and Orthodox Christians residing in the northeast Romania to Türkiye, and the emigration of Romanian Jews in response to increasing human rights violations against them in Romania. When WWII broke out in September 1939, Turkey allied with the UK and France while Romania enjoyed similar guarantees. After the Nazi advance towards Soviet lands in 1941, Romania joined the Axis. Regardless, Turkey and Romania stood with opposing sides throughout WWII; nonetheless, friendly relations persisted between the two countries after the war. Several researchers from Romania and Turkey have studied the relations between both countries during the abovementioned period. This paper analyses newly opened Turkish archival documents to shed light on uncovered parts of both countries’ relations on the eve of WWII.
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Keywords:
| | Alliance, Archival Documents, Balkan Pact, Conflict Resolution, Constructivism, Geopolitics, Immigration, Minority Rights, Trade Relations, World War II.
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