Roosevelt Inönü and Churchill in Cairo cph

The Second Cairo Conference of December 4–6, 1943, held in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, addressed

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

's possible contribution to the Allies in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.U.S. Army: "Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943-1944" by Maurice Matloff, Chapter XVI, pp. 379-380.
Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington D.C., 1990. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 53-61477. First Printed 1959-CMH Pub 1-4. The meeting was attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and President

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three ti ...

of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula i ...

. Until 1941, both Roosevelt and Churchill maintained the opinion that Turkey's continuing neutrality would serve the interests of the Allies by blocking the Axis from reaching the strategic oil reserves of the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

. But the early victories of the Axis until the end of 1942 caused Roosevelt and Churchill to re-evaluate a possible Turkish participation in the war on the side of the Allies. Turkey had maintained a sizeable Army and Air Force throughout the war, and especially Churchill wanted the Turks to open a new front in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Prior to the conference in Cairo, on January 30, 1943, Churchill had secretly met with İnönü inside a train wagon at the Yenice Station, 23 kilometers outside of

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart of Cilicia, ...

, to discuss the issue (see the

Adana Conference The Adana Conference or Yenice Conference ( Turkish: ''Adana Görüşmesi '', ''Adana Mülakatı 'Sonraları bu görüşme Adana Mülakatı diye anılır oldu. Fakat hakikatte iki devlet adamının telâkisi Adana'da değil, Yenice istasyon ...

.) Roosevelt, on the other hand, still believed that a Turkish attack would be too risky and an eventual Turkish failure would have disastrous effects for the Allies. İnönü knew very well the hardships and losses of territory, population and wealth which his country had to suffer during 11 years of incessant war (the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result ...

, the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

, the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, and the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

) between 1911 and 1922, and was determined to keep Turkey out of another war as long as he could. İnönü also wanted assurances on financial and military aid for Turkey, as well as a guarantee that the

and the

would stand beside Turkey in case of a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

invasion of the Turkish Straits after the war, as

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

had openly expressed. The fear of a Soviet invasion and Stalin's unconcealed desire to control the Turkish Straits eventually caused Turkey to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign relations and join

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

in 1952.

Perhaps the biggest reason for Turkey's hesitation to immediately join the war on the side of the Allies was the eventual reduction of the amount of financial and military aid which Churchill had promised in Adana. By December 1943 the Anglo-American authorities felt the overall situation had changed so fundamentally that a much smaller scale of assistance than that provided in the Hardihood Agreement of the spring of 1943 would be necessary. The British proposed a reduced scale of Aid Plan Saturn. The Turks, on the other hand, wished to make certain that upon their entry into the war they would be strong enough to defend their homeland and they doubted that the new plan would fully meet their security needs. Churchill, faced with

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

only six months away, reluctantly concluded that the resources demanded and the time required for strengthening Turkey could not be conceded. The U.S. Chiefs of Staff and their planners, on the other hand, felt relieved that this possible threat to concentration on Operation Overlord had at last been removed. At the end of the conference, it was decided that Turkey's neutrality should be maintained. It was also decided to build the

Incirlik Air Base Incirlik Air Base ( tr, İncirlik Hava Üssü) is a Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha), located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million people, east of ...

near Adana for possible Allied air operations in the region, but construction works began after the end of the Second World War. Incirlik Air Base later played an important role for

during the Cold War. Another decision was to postpone Operation Anakim against Japan in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. Roosevelt and İnönü got what they wanted, while Churchill was disappointed with the result, because he believed that an active Turkish participation in the war would quicken the German defeat by hitting their ''"soft underbelly"'' in the southeast. Turkey eventually joined the war on the side of the Allies on 23 February 1945, after it was announced at the

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

that only the states which were formally at war with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and Japan by 1 March 1945 would be admitted to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

. However, Turkey didn't directly participate in a military conflict; limiting its participation to providing materials and supplies for the Allies, and imposing political and economic sanctions on the Axis states. Another discussed issue was the independence of

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

from the

French Colonial Empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exis ...

, as documented briefly by the

Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States' political and military ...

.“Pentagon Papers Part 1.” ''U.S. National Archives'', U.S. Government, 8 June 2011, www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers.

References

External links

U.S. Army: "Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943-1944" by Maurice Matloff, Chapter XVI, pp. 379-380.
Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington D.C., 1990. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 53-61477. First Printed 1959-CMH Pub 1-4. *
World War II Database: Second Cairo Conference (December 4–6, 1943)

Keeping the Pot Boiling: British Propaganda in Neutral Turkey during the Second World War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conference, Second Cairo History of the Republic of Turkey Second Cairo Conference Diplomatic conferences in Egypt 1943 conferences 1943 in Egypt 1943 in international relations December 1943 events İsmet İnönü Turkey–United Kingdom relations Turkey–United States relations Conferences in Cairo 1940s in Cairo 1943 in military history Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt

See also

References

External links