TURKEY UPSET BY RUSSIAN DEMANDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 5

TURKEY UPSET BY RUSSIAN DEMANDS

tehse and mvovs Will Place Her Case Before World Opinion N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, June 29. "News of Russian demands on Turkey have caused tension and nervousness here," says the Daily Mail correspondent in Istanbul. "The publication of the news for the first time in all Turkish newspapers to-day indicates that Turkey now proposes to place her case before world opinion.

"The first Turkish reaction," the correspondent adds, "has been that while she desires the friendship of Russia she cannot make the concessions which Russia demands. The Turkish Press says the districts of Kars and Ardahan (near the Armenian border) were ceded to Turkey in 1921, and even as late as 1941 Russia officially affirmed that she would never demand territorial concessions from Turkey.

"Officials in Ankara attached great importance to the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister, M. Hassan Saka, to London, on his way home from the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. The results of the Foreign Minister's talks with Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden will undoubtedly influence the Turkish Government's decisions.

"A majority of Turks place their confidence in the British-Turkish alliance, and it is felt in Ankara that London must play a leading part in settling the present difference between Russia and Turkey."

The Times correspondent in Ankara says the Turks. deeply regret the unsettled state of their relations with Russia. The systematic anti-Turkish campaign which the Russian Press and radio are pursuing is causing grave concern and it has been noticed that recently the campaign has taken the form of combined attacks against Turkey and Greece.

A British Official Wireless message dated June 26, stated: "The British Government is being kept informed by the Turkish Government about an exchange of views now proceeding between Turkey and Russia on the conditions under which the Turkish-Russian treaty of friendship, terminated by Russia last March, should be renewed. It was reported from Istanbul yesterday that the Russfan Ambassador to Ankara called on the acting-Turkish Foreign Minister last week with a Note from his Government.

"Though no official statement has been made, it is understood the Soviet Government desires a change in the present administration of the Straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles), giving Russia a special position as the principal Black Sea Power. If that is so, Great Britain, as one of the signatories of the Montreux Convention of 1936, regulating the international status of the Straits, would be interested.

"Any modification of the Montreux regime would naturally be a matter for consideration of all the signatories. Other subjects reported to be under discussion appear to be matters • affecting only Russia and Turkey."