Kemalist Turkey and national socialist Germany in British annual reports (1933-1938)

Following Adolf Hitler's seizure of power in Germany in 1933, Europe was gradually divided into two camps: Revisionist states who worked to dismantle the status-quo that was established after the First World War, and anti-revisionist states, who struggled to maintain the status-quo and peace in Europe. Nazi Germany led the revisionist effort, mainly due to Nazism being a racist and expansionist ideology, promoting conflict and manufacturing war. At the same time, Turkey, Germany's ally in the First World War and now a well- respected sovereign state, was striving to form lasting relations with both Germany and Britain, who led the anti-revisionist effort. The aim of this thesis is to examine Turkey's diplomatic and ideological relations with Nazi Germany, determine her stance in the division of revisionism vs. anti-revisionism in Europe, and to investigate where Kemalism, Turkey's founding ideology, aligns and/or clashes with Nazism, based on the annual reports that were written by the British Embassy personnel in Ankara and making use of both British and Turkish documents, in addition to secondary sources. It has been found that despite Turkey's immense financial traffic with Germany, national socialism failed to attract significant Turkish masses, save for few exceptions; and that Turkey aligned herself with the anti-revisionist states and put emphasis on the value of her friendship with both Britain and per the traditions of Republican Turkish diplomacy, Russia. The British annual reports do not carry significant evidence of national socialist tendencies in Turkey's official state policies or public attitude. It has also been ascertained that Kemalism, despite some superficial parallels, carries no structural similarities, concurrence or unity of purpose with national socialism. As of 1938, Turkey is found to have set her route towards democracy and peace, rather than conflict, national socialism and fascism.