RUSSIA AND TURKEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 304, 26 December 1945, Page 5

RUSSIA AND TURKEY

WAR MAY LIE IN THE BACKGROUND Istanbul. Dec. 23 The newspaper “Vakit” said: “It Russia does not drop her claims, Turkey would undoubtedly envisage war.” Repudiating claims of Soviet Georgia, other Turkish newspaper comment has stressed that Turkey is not prepared to surrender territory. London, Dec. 23. Russian claims on extensive areas of the Black Sea have aroused a storm of protest throughout Turkey, says the “Daily Mail's’’ Istanbul correspondent. The Turkish attitude has considerably hardened after a fiery speech yesterday by General Kiazim Karabekir. who negotiated the RussianTurkish Treaty in 1920, whereby the Karas. Ardahan and Artwin areas: were ceded to Turkey. These are tne areas at present disputed.

General Karabekir, addressing the National Assembly, declared thev were essentially Turkish. “The Dardanelles are the throat, the Kars the backbone of Turkey,” he said. “We do not wish to revive the old TurkishRussian feud, but if Moscow insists in claiming territory from Turkey, we shall say ‘no’ to the new Russian claims.”

He added that the world could never be sure to what lengths Russian demands would eventually go. The Kremlin’s attitude had raised the international diplomatic temperature to a level beyond tolerance.