If anyone showed an example of skillful maneuvering and the finest diplomacy in World War II, it was Turkey. As you know, in 1941, Turkey declared its neutrality and strictly observed it throughout the war, although it experienced tremendous pressure from both the Axis countries and the anti-Hitler coalition. In any case, this is what Turkish historians say. However, this is only the official version, which is strongly at odds with reality.
Machine guns MG 08 at the minaret of Ai-Sophia in Istanbul, September 1941. Photo from the site ru.wikipedia.org
But the reality was completely different - during 1941-1944. Turkey actually sided with Hitler, although the Turkish soldiers did not fire a single shot in the direction of the Soviet soldiers. Rather, they did, and more than one, but all of this was classified as a "border incident" that looked like a mere trifle against the backdrop of the bloody battles of the Soviet-German front. In any case, both sides - the Soviet and Turkish - did not react to the border incidents and did not cause far-reaching consequences.
Although for the period 1942-1944. skirmishes on the border were not so uncommon and often ended in the death of Soviet border guards. But Stalin preferred not to aggravate relations, since he understood perfectly well that if Turkey entered the war on the side of the Axis countries, then the situation of the USSR could instantly turn from unenviable to hopeless. This was especially true in 1941-1942.
Turkey did not force events either, remembering well how its participation in the First World War on the side of Germany ended for it. The Turks were in no hurry to rush headlong into another world massacre, preferring to watch the battle from afar and, of course, derive the maximum benefit for themselves.
Before the war, relations between the USSR and Turkey were fairly even and stable; in 1935, the treaty of friendship and cooperation was extended for another ten-year period, and Turkey signed a non-aggression pact with Germany on June 18, 1941. Two months later, after the start of World War II, the USSR announced that it would continue to comply with the provisions of the Montreux Convention, which regulates the rules of navigation in the Bosporus and Dardanelles. And also has no aggressive plans against Turkey and welcomes its neutrality.
All this allowed Turkey to refuse to participate in the world war on completely legal grounds. But this was impossible for two reasons. Firstly, Turkey owned the Straits Zone, strategically important for the belligerent parties, and, secondly, the Turkish government was going to adhere to neutrality only up to a certain point. What it, in fact, did not hide, at the end of 1941, it approved a law on the conscription of older conscripts, which is usually done on the eve of a major war.
In the fall of 1941, Turkey transferred 24 divisions to the border with the USSR, which forced Stalin to strengthen the Transcaucasian military district with 25 divisions. Which obviously were not superfluous on the Soviet-German front, given the state of affairs at that time.
With the beginning of 1942, the intentions of Turkey no longer aroused doubts among the Soviet leadership, and in April of the same year a tank corps, six air regiments, two divisions were transferred to Transcaucasia, and on May 1 the Transcaucasian Front was officially approved.
In fact, the war against Turkey was to begin any day, since on May 5, 1942, the troops received a directive about their readiness to start a preemptive attack on Turkish territory. However, the matter did not come to hostilities, although the withdrawal of significant forces of the Red Army by Turkey significantly helped the Wehrmacht. After all, if the 45th and 46th armies were not in Transcaucasia, but participated in the battles with the 6th Army of Paulus, then it is still unknown what "successes" the Germans would have achieved in the 1942 summer campaign.
But much more damage to the USSR was caused by Turkey's cooperation with Hitler in the economic sphere, especially the actual opening of the Strait Zone for the ships of the Axis countries. Formally, the Germans and Italians observed decency: naval sailors, when passing the straits, changed into civilian clothes, the weapons from the ships were removed or disguised, and there seemed to be nothing to complain about. Formally, the Montreux Convention was respected, but at the same time, not only German and Italian merchant ships, but also combat ships freely sailed through the straits.
And soon it got to the point that the Turkish navy began to escort transports with cargo for the Axis countries in the Black Sea. In practice, partnership with Germany allowed Turkey to make good money on supplying Hitler not only with food, tobacco, cotton, cast iron, copper, etc., but also with strategic raw materials. For example, chromium. The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles became the most important communication between the Axis countries fighting against the USSR, who felt themselves in the Strait Zone, if not at home, then certainly as visiting close friends.
But the rare ships of the Soviet fleet went through the Straits, in fact, as if they were being shot. Which, however, was not far from the truth. In November 1941, four Soviet ships - an icebreaker and three tankers - it was decided to transfer from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean due to their uselessness and so that they would not become victims of German dive bombers. All four ships were civilian and unarmed.
The Turks let them through without hindrance, but as soon as the ships left the Dardanelles, the tanker "Varlaam Avanesov" received a torpedo from the German submarine U652 on board, which is a coincidence! - was exactly on the route of the Soviet ships.
Either the German intelligence promptly worked, or the "neutral" Turks shared information with their partners, but the fact remains that "Varlaam Avanesov" still lies at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, 14 kilometers from the island of Lesbos. The icebreaker "Anastas Mikoyan" was more fortunate, and he was able to escape the pursuit of Italian boats near the island of Rhodes. The only thing that saved the icebreaker was that the boats were armed with small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, with which it was quite problematic to sink the icebreaker.
If German and Italian ships rode through the Straits, as if through their own entrance yard, carrying any cargo, then the ships of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition could not bring into the Black Sea not only weapons or raw materials, but even food. Then the Turks immediately turned into evil Cerberus and, referring to their neutrality, forbade the Allied ships to go to the Black Sea ports of the USSR. So they had to transport goods to the USSR not through the Straits, but through distant Iran.
The pendulum swung in the opposite direction in the spring of 1944, when it became clear that Germany was losing the war. At first, the Turks reluctantly, but nevertheless yielded to pressure from England and stopped supplying German industry with chromium, and then began to more closely control the passage of German ships through the Straits.
And then the incredible happened: in June 1944 the Turks suddenly "discovered" that not unarmed German ships were trying to pass through the Bosphorus, but military ones. The search conducted revealed weapons and ammunition hidden in the holds. And a miracle happened - the Turks simply "turned" the Germans back to Varna. It is not known what phrases Hitler let go of the Turkish President Ismet Inonu, but for sure all of them were clearly not parliamentary.
After the Belgrade offensive, when it became clear that the German presence in the Balkans was over, Turkey behaved like a typical scavenger who sensed that yesterday's friend and partner would soon give up. President Inonu broke off all relations with Germany, and on February 23, 1945, the warlike spirit of the sultans Mehmet II and Suleiman the Magnificent clearly descended upon him - Inonu suddenly took and declared war on Germany. And along the way - why waste time on trifles, to fight so to fight! - War was declared on Japan as well.
Of course, not a single Turkish soldier took part in it until the end of the war, and the declaration of war on Germany and Japan was an empty formality that allowed Hitler's partner Turkey to perform a cheating trick and cling to the victorious countries. Having avoided serious problems along the way.
There is no doubt that after Stalin had done away with Germany, he would have had a good reason to ask the Turks a number of serious questions that could end, for example, with the Istanbul offensive and a Soviet landing on both banks of the Dardanelles.
Against the background of the victorious Red Army, which has colossal combat experience, the Turkish army did not even look like a whipping boy, but like a harmless boxing bag. Therefore, she would have been done away with in a matter of days. But after February 23, Stalin could no longer take and declare war on the "ally" in the anti-Hitler coalition. Although, had he done it a couple of months earlier, neither Britain nor the United States would have strongly protest, especially since Churchill had not objected to the transfer of the Strait Zone to the USSR at the Tehran Conference.
One can only guess how many ships - both commercial and military - of the Axis countries passed through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles in 1941-1944, how much raw materials Turkey supplied Germany and how much this extended the existence of the Third Reich. Also, you will never know what price the Red Army paid for the Turkish-German partnership, but there is no doubt that the Soviet soldiers paid for it with their lives.
For almost the entire war, Turkey was a non-belligerent ally of Hitler, regularly fulfilling all his wishes and supplying everything possible. And if, for example, Sweden can also be blamed for the supply of iron ore to Germany, then Turkey can be blamed not so much for trade cooperation with the Nazis as in providing them with the Strait Zone - the most important world communication. Which in wartime has always acquired and will acquire strategic importance.
The Second World War and Turkish "neutrality" once again proved what was well known since Byzantine times: without the possession of the Strait Zone, no country in the Black Sea-Mediterranean region can claim the title of great one.
This fully applies to Russia, which collapsed in 1917 largely due to the fact that the Russian tsars did not take control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles in the 19th century, and in the First World War it was very bad - if you can call it that - it was planned landing operation in the Bosphorus.
In our time, the problem of the Strait Zone has not become less urgent and it is possible that Russia will face this problem more than once. We can only hope that this will not have such fatal consequences as in 1917.
