Turkey and World War II

World War II started in 1939 and continued until 1945.

The members of the SS teams were mostly responsible for these killings. The SS (Shutzstaffel) was a paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the  Nazi  Party, which was made up of the armed party militants. The SS was divided into two main groups under the administration of the Nazi politician Heinrich Luitpold Himmler in 1933. The first one was the Secret State Police called the GESTAPO (Geheime Staatspolizei) established in 1933. The second group also had two sub-sections: The Waffen SS (the Armed SS Organization), the combat units within the German Army led by army officers, and the Allgemeine SS in charge of police duties and responsible for the racist killings.

On September 10, 1937, a conference was held in Nyon (Switzerland) with the participation of France, Britain, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Greece, the Soviet Union, and Turkey.

The likeminded three countries, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a Tripartite Pact on September 27, 1940 which formed the Axis Powers of World War II.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor.

The Barbarossa Operation, Hitler’s plan to occupy the Soviet Union, began in June 1941.

After three years of fighting in Africa, the German and Italian troops surrendered to the Allied in Tunisia in May 1943.

The United States, considering the heavy losses on the Pacific, decided to use atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively. The bombs caused the death of 71.000 civilians in Hiroshima and 50.000 in Nagasaki, the heaviest of all civilian deaths in one day.

The Yalta Conference (Argonaut Conference) was held in Crimea between February 4 and 11, 1945 where President Roosevelt, the British Premier Churchill, and the Soviet Premier Stalin, the leaders of the big three Allies, participated.

Unlike the previous conferences, the Potsdam Conference focused on how to ensure peace. The topics covered several issues such as the Polish Question; Germany, Austria, Eastern European countries; the Turkish Straights, etc.

During WWII, İsmet İnönü was the President of Turkey. Şükrü Saraçoğlu became the foreign minister to serve from 1939 to 1942. When he became the Prime Minister, Numan Menemencioğlu, who had been secretary-general at the foreign office since 1929, took over and served as the foreign minister until his forced resignation in June 1944. Then, a new foreign minister, Hasan Saka, replaced him.

Germany’s successful Blitzkrieg (in German, lightning war. It meant to create a psychological shock on the enemy power) tactics made Turkey change its defense plans. Turkey did not want to be occupied by any country from the Balkans since the war reached Turkey’s borders when the German occupied Greece and Bulgaria sided with the Axis in 1941. Although it found herself encircled by the Axis powers, Turkey was still a neutral country in 1941.

The British-Soviet invasion of Iran took place in August of 1941.

In June 1940, when a long-term agreement with Britain failed, Turkey secured a new trade agreement with Germany. The agreement was known as the Clodius agreement; a name which was given after the German negotiator, Karl Clodius. According to the agreement, Germany would receive a maximum of 90,000 tons of chromium in 1943 when the contract with the British ended, and 45,000 tons in 1944. Under this agreement, Turkey would buy military and other essential equipment from Germany.

Turkey’s position effectively changed in OctoberNovember 1942, when Germany was defeated at elAlamein and the Allies landed in Algeria and Morocco effectively ending the Axis threat to the Middle East. Furthermore, Germany surrendered at Stalingrad in February 1943. Having evaluated these developments, Turkey preferred Germany to reach an agreement with the Allied powers since she did not want the Soviet Union to be dominant in Eastern Europe.

Another conference in 1943 was the Moscow Conference held on October 19, November 1, 1943.

Pan-Turanism or Turanism is an early 19th century movement, which propagated a strong political and cultural attachment with all the Turkic, Tartar, and Uralic peoples. The ideology was the brainchild of the Young Turks to counter the Pan-Slavic movement that started in the imperial Russia.

The Capital Tax (Varlık Vergisi), passed on November 11, 1942, was a non-repetitive levy from the affluent segments of society and constituted in essence a wealth tax. It would be applicable to big farmers, estate and property owners, entrepreneurs, corporations, and several individuals paying income taxes. The proclaimed purpose of the tax was raising funds for defense in case of a participation in World War II. Additionally, it was supposed to establish a financial levelling with the sectors in society that had increased their prosperity due to war profiteering.

In addition to the National Protection Law granting the state complete control over the economy and the temporary taxes, the government also established new public agencies to regulate economic measures and supervise their implementation. The Undersecreteriat for Provisions (İaşe Teşkilatı/Müsteşarlığı), the Trade Office (Ticaret Ofisi), and the Petroleum Office (Petrol Ofisi) were the major ones, all of which were founded on February 18, 1941 and operated under the Ministry of Trade. The Undersecreteriat for Provisions strove to combat food shortages caused by the effects of the war with several subsidiary branches in multiple cities and regions. The main responsibility of this organization was to produce food and fuel supplies, store them, and ensure their fair distribution and use under emergency conditions. The Trade Office primarily served to control imports, prevent monopolies, and avert profiteering. The duty of the Petroleum Office was the valorization of petroleum and its derivative products and the management of their storage, delivery and distribution throughout the country.

The plight of the people during the World War II years has been depicted in various Turkish novels which present a portrait of the problems experienced in multiple respects. Some examples among too many are: Sonsuz Panayır by Halide Edip Adıvar, Garipler Sokağı by Oktay Akbal, Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu by Peyami Safa, Panorama by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Havada Bulut Yok by Cevdet Kudret, Namusçular by Kemal Tahir, Emir Bey’in Kızları by Ayla Kutlu, Karartma Geceleri by Rıfat Ilgaz, Rezil Dünya by Faik Baysal, 72. Koğuş by Orhan Kemal.