Trouble in Cyprus, Riots in Turkey: Ian Fleming, Propaganda, and "The Great Riot of Istanbul"

Abstract

This article will analyse British influence campaigns that employed disinformation and propaganda to advance British interests during the Second World War and the early Cold War, with a focus on the role of Ian Fleming. It draws on declassified files at The National Archives in London, primary media sources in English and in Turkish, and secondary published research to help understand the extent to which British objectives were achieved in Turkey and Cyprus by finding common ground with the Turkish government, creating false anti-communist narratives, and turning a blind eye to undemocratic and repressive activity against minorities driven by ethno-nationalist policies of the Turkish Republic. The article will answer the following questions: why did Ian Fleming trivialise a violent pogrom against ethnic-Greeks in Istanbul in 1955 as a spontaneous “riot” (in his Sunday Times report), and as a Soviet plot in From Russia With Love? Did British strategic considerations in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean make them complicit in human rights abuses in Turkey? Did Ian Fleming’s writing help shield the Turkish government from criticism at a time of declining colonial power and ideological Cold War? And finally, how do public perceptions of intelligence that Fleming helped to create serve the interests of modern, authoritarian politics in Turkey?