BRITAIN AND TURKEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23951, 28 October 1939, Page 12

BRITAIN AND TURKEY

RELATIONS IN PAST CHEQUERED HISTORY The change of policy revealed by the signing of the pacts between Turkey, Britain and France, thus lining up the Turks against any possible allies of Germany in the Mediterranean area may seem curious, if in this era of surprises anything can now surprise. That the Turks, against whom we fought 2U years ago when they were allied with Germany (states a writer in the Evening Post) should now be with us is. however, quite in keeping with the history of Anglo-Turkish relations, which have very often suffered violent changes of direction in much shorter periods than two decades. Early in the nineteenth century, for instance, the Turks were beside Britain in the struggle against Napoleon, yet in 1807 the British fleet passed through the Dardanelles to compel Turkey to give way to Russia, and then sailed to Alexandria to aid the Mameluke in his revolt against Turkish suzerainty In 1826 our sympathies lay with the Greeks in their struggle for independence. and our ships helped the French and Russians to sink the Turkish fleet at Navarino. Yet the following year we were defending the integrity of the Ottoman Empire against Russia. In 1852 we were manifesting the utmost distrust of Turkish policy—and two vears later were campaigning in the Crimea again with France, to defend Turkey against Russia. In 1867 the Sultan was brought to London to receive the Order of the Garter than which Britain has nothing higher to give. Yet in 1876 the British newspapers and people were denouncing the Bulgarian atrocities of the “ unspeakable Turk.” Nevertheless, in the following year our fleet once again lay in the Bosphorus, covering Constantinople with its guns, as a protective move against the advancing Russians. In 1882 our military occupation of Egypt gave the utmost displeasure to the Turks but within three years we had reached a working agreement with them in the course of which the whole problem would be settled in the next five years. It was the interference of the French which prevented this agreement from being carried out. The recurring pattern it will be rioted is that every time Turkey has been threatened by Russia Britain has intervened to give her aid On one occasion since the World War we have refused to adopt an anti-Turkish stand —when the Turco-Greek war broke out with the Greek invasion of Turkish territory, and Mr Lloyd George wished to intervene “ to prevent a Turkish invasion of Europe." a course which did not meet with popular approval in Britain and which helped to bring Mr Lloyd George’s term as Prime Minister to a close