SOVYETLER BİRLİĞİ’NİN ÇEKOSLOVAKYA’YA MÜDAHALESİNİN TÜRK KAMUOYUNDA DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Abstract

When the Second World War ended, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), established dominance over the region in all its dimensions by establishing satellite governments in the East of Europe that coincided exactly with its own system in political, economic, and social terms. The Eastern European countries, which had come under the full control of the USSR, began to take steps towards producing relatively more independent policies since the 1960s. Since January 1968, Czechoslovakia, under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), also moved towards socialism in a more original way in accordance with its own social dynamics. It started a reform initiative called the “Prague Spring”. After Dubcek’s insistence on reform, the Warsaw Pact countries, except Romania, intervened militarily in Czechoslovakia under the leadership of the USSR. The CPC leadership decided not to resist this invasion carried out by the countries affiliated with the Warsaw Pact. Soviet forces going into Prague arrested CPC General Secretary Dubcek and Prime Minister Cernik and took them to Moscow. After the “normalization” talks between the parties in Moscow, although CPC General Secretary Dubcek said that they would not back down from the idea of “socialism, humanism, and national independence”, he ultimately agreed to act in accordance with the demands of the USSR. Turkish Political thought, following the developments in Czechoslovakia. In this study, based on the prominent newspapers and magazines of the period such as Akşam, Ant, Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, Ulus, and the Turkish Left, it was aimed to examine the reflections of the events experienced in Czechoslovakia in August 1968 on Turkey’s public opinion.