TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OF THE ARMENIAN AND GEORGIAN SSRs TO TURKEY IN THE 1940s
TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OF THE ARMENIAN AND GEORGIAN SSRs TO TURKEY IN THE 1940s

Summary/Abstract: Immediately after the end of World War II Turkey once more became entangled with the interests of the Great Powers. Turkey’s strategic importance of having territorial access to the Middle East and powerful nations’ attempts to predetermine the political orientation of the Turkish government led to a revitalization of politics by the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States in relation to Ankara. Consequently, the post-war era became a turning point in Soviet-Turkish relations when the friendly relations, founded in the initial years of the Turkish Republic, were replaced with coolness and hidden enmities. The Soviet Union launched a planned “war of nerves” against Turkey by raising territorial claims and using the Armenian SSR and Georgian SSR for its own causes, which gave new impetus to the “Armenian issue” and a launch of campaign on repatriation of Armenians living abroad. It waged an intensive anti-Turkish propaganda in the mass media, and raised the question of revision of the 1936 Montreux Convention regarding the regime of the Turkish Straits with the aim of amending the treaty to its own interests.

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