TURKEY AND THE WAR OBLIGATIONS TO BRITAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25301, 11 August 1943, Page 3

TURKEY AND THE WAR

OBLIGATIONS TO BRITAIN

FULFILMENT WHEN REQUIRED (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10. “ The day we are called on to fulfil our obligations to Britain under the treaty and enter the war we shall do so.” This forthright statement was made by M. Yalchin, a member of the Turkish Cabinet, in an article in the newspaper Vatan, says Reuter’s Istanbul correspondent. M. Yalchin, in an interview, said the article expressed his own personal opinion. “Turkey promised to enter the war on Britain’s side when certain conditions arose, in the Mediterranean,” said M. Yalchin in the article. “Those conditions have not yet arisen. Although Turkey has never declared neutrality, Axis propaganda is doing its utmost to discredit the AngloSaxons for trying to get Turkey to abandon neutrality. The fact is that when we are called •on to enter the conflict under our treaty obligations we shall not need pushing.” Reuter’s correspondent says the article contradicts an earlier statement by the influential Istanbul newspaper, Aksam, that Turkey would remain neutral until the end of the war.