Bandung Conference and Non-Aligned Movement discussions in Turkish foreign policy (1955-1964)

As a result of the events that took place after the Second World War, many changes occurred in international politics. The most important of these is that the USA and Soviet Russia are responsible for bringing the world to a multipolar axis. After the Second World War, these countries started the Cold War period, which resulted in the formation of the Western Bloc under the leadership of the USA and the Eastern Bloc under the leadership of Soviet Russia. The threats of Soviet Russia pushed Turkey to take place in the Western Bloc led by the USA. Thus, international politics began to revolve around these two superpowers. However, many states in Asian and African countries that gained their independence after the Second World War attempted to form an alliance other than the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc. States that want to maintain such an impartial policy have agreed not to be members of any of the Eastern or Western blocs and not to join these organizations in order to be independent in every sense. This agreement gave rise to a formation called the Non-Aligned Movement. The Bandung Conference, on the other hand, is a conference that was held between April 18 and April 24, 1955 in order to reveal the Non-Aligned Movement and has a great importance in international politics. Turkey, which struggled with imperialism after the First World War, took its place among the countries invited to the Bandung Conference. Turkey supported these states, which were under the pressure of imperialism, to gain their freedom and stated that it had great respect for them. However, he stated that he did not support the idea of neutrality, which is one of the main principles and most important of the conference. The reason for Turkey's stance was the strong ties between India, Egypt and the Soviet Union that pose a threat to Turkey, as well as the fact that the People's Republic of China, which participated in the meeting, was under a communist administration. This attitude of Turkey caused it to act as a kind of representative and spokesperson of the West at the conference and to create a reaction against the concept of neutrality. In fact, Deputy Prime Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu warned in a statement at the Bandung Conference that neutrality would undermine the independence of countries. Fatin Rüştü Zorlu also wanted communist expansionism to be classified as a colonialist movement. After that, Zorlu's request was accepted and included in this conference document. In this thesis, the journey of Non-aligned Movement which started with Bandung Conference has been evaluated spesific to Turkish Foreign Policy between the years of 1955 and 1964 considering the political eras before and changes of government by state and government policies, press, public opinion, political life and thoughts.