"Turco-American Rapprochement, 1927-1932." In Studies on Asia, Sidney D. Brown, ed., 139-70

Abstract

Turkish-American diplomatic relations experienced a decade-long hiatus at the time of the Great War and its immediate aftermath, until the ties were eventually restored in 1927. Subsequently, the United States discovered that there had been a radical change between the Ottoman Empire which Ambassador Elkus had left in 1917, and the Turkish Republic when Ambassador Grew arrived, a decade later. This significant transformation had been expedited by the progressive, secularist and nationalist path set by Mustafa Kemal, by sweeping political, social and economic reforms. The main argument of this article is that these changes, combined with the efforts of prominent individuals, not only had a favourable impact on the course of Turkish-American relations which resulted in a rapprochement, but also significantly challenged the prevailing 'Terrible Turk' stereotype commonly held in the United States. Although there are numerous studies on Turkish-American relations in the Cold War era, and its aftermath, during which strategic and security concerns resulted in extensive ties between the two countries,1 there are very few penetrating studies on the formative stages of this relations-building process during the inter-war period. Moreover, the limited number of existing works which embrace the period chronologically, such as Roger Trask's The United States' Response to Turkish Nationalism and Reform (1914-1939), are based almost exclusively on American sources, and produce an Amero-centric perspective of the process.2 This study intends, therefore, to contribute to scholarship in this field by making extensive use of both Turkish and American sources, including some hitherto unused archival documents. A thorough and balanced analysis of relations during the interwar period enables us to achieve a better understanding of this crucial formative phase, setting the stage for the Cold War era from the viewpoints, and historical interpretations, of both nations. Moreover, from that platform emerges a more complete understanding of Turkish-American relations in the post-Cold War period, during which the relations are no longer defined by the parameters of the bipolar power structure of the Cold War years. Within this context, this article examines the factors that helped to mitigate negative stereotypes against the Turks in the United States in the inter-war era focusing on the period starting with the reestablishment of diplomatic ties in 1927 and terminating at the beginning of the Second World War. More importantly, as both Americans and Turks are currently