How Russia saved Turkey from the partition
The Ottoman Empire, more precisely - the state into which the Young Turks had turned into the beginning of the 20th century, was ruined by the results of the First World War. Both politically and economically. The Versailles Peace did not become a final verdict for it only because of contradictions between the victorious powers. In addition, in France and England, the people did not expect to get involved in a new war, even a colonial one - they did not forget the slaughter which the Turks had staged on the Gallipoli peninsula. Italy did not hide claims on possessions in Asia Minor, but also did not have any opportunities to reinforce its ambitions. In reality, only Greek politicians, led by Prime Minister Venizelos, wanted to fight Turkey. In the end, this turned out to be in the hands of just the senior allies in the Entente, who simply decided to divide Turkey with Greek hands.
It took only six months after the end of the great European war, when Greek troops landed in Asia Minor. Behind them, in the Aegean Sea, there was a powerful Anglo-French squadron, the army was fully equipped and equipped weapons allies too. It was not only in Tsarist Russia that they dreamed of returning the Orthodox cross to Holy Sophia, as well as the Greeks, from the moment they gained independence (in 1830), looked at Constantinople. Although at that time the occupation allied troops were in charge of the city, which, by the way, allowed thousands of immigrants from Russia to settle in Istanbul.
The offensive of the Greeks was developing rapidly, because the Turks most of the combat-ready troops were occupied in the East, where the Armenian and Kurdish volunteers replaced the Russian Caucasian army. The Greeks went directly to Angora (now Ankara) - the new capital of the renewed Turkey.
In a small European theater of war, Greek troops, almost meeting no resistance, came to the walls of Adrianople, almost on the border with Bulgaria.
The Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal, better known as Ataturk, immediately, with remarkable revolutionary pathos, turned to the “Great Northern Neighbor” for help, proposing “to forget the old accounts forever.” At first, Moscow responded with limited financial support, but in the autumn of 1920, when Wrangel was defeated in the Crimea and the war with Poland ended, albeit not too successfully, everything changed. Financial support has become massive, although it is not entirely clear where Moscow actually acquired the funds from. But the main thing is that the flow of equipment and weapons released after the Civil War went to Turkey. In the 1921 year alone, more than 30 thousands of rifles, millions of cartridges, thousands of sabers and gas masks, three hundred machine guns, 54 artillery guns, more than 100 thousands of shells and even 2 of sea planes, apparently trophy, arrived in Turkey from Soviet Russia. And all this - in addition to 10 millions of rubles in gold. And one more not too known fact. We do not like to remember that military experts from Red Russia also came to the aid of the new "comrades in arms."
In the spring of 1921, the RSFSR concludes with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, headed by Mustafa Kemal, an agreement on "friendship and fraternity".
It was essentially a diplomatic breakthrough. Russia, which itself had recently dreamed of the same, the first of the great powers, recognized “another Turkey”. It is interesting that after this the case almost did not reach the declaration of war by Greece to Russia, but ... the diplomats somehow managed to come to an agreement. Meanwhile, the Greeks continued to attack, but the Turks practically dealt with the Armenians, which was accompanied by an almost obligatory massacre. By the way, the 1921 year, unlike the 1915, is very rare for the Turks.
The relative success in the East allowed the Kemalists to proceed with the transfer of troops to Asia Minor. In the fall of 1921, the Greeks attacked Ankara and failed - they failed to win the epic twenty-two-day battle at the Sakaria River. Mustafa Kemal was awarded the title of Gazi - the Soldier of the Holy War, almost "jihad", and the front froze for a long time. The Greeks are frankly exhausted, and Italy and France behind their backs have already practically agreed with the emissaries of the latter-day Gazi Ataturk. In Athens, the government changed, Venizelos went to the opposition, and France, the second after the great powers after Russia, recognized the government of Mustafa Kemal.
The current configuration of the Greek-Turkish front helped the Red advisers to tell the Turks to repeat the maneuver of the French on the Marne on the River Smyrna. Or the Poles on the Vistula. Simply put - to hit the flank, albeit in a peripheral, seemingly, front area. It is characteristic that in the 1930-s in the “Library of the Commander” a study was released which, alas, did not escape the repression of Major-General Vladimir Melikov, so called: “Marne, Wisla, Smyrna”. By the way, in the mouth of Smyrna stands the eponymous city - modern Izmir, and this was practically the only Turkish possession to which, by that time, Greek politicians continued to claim.
However, a way out of the positional impasse occurred only in the fall of 1922 of the year. Before that, the Turks were generally offered peace, moreover on the conditions of the complete withdrawal of the Greeks from Asia Minor, but the Kemalists rested.
As you can see, Turkey felt behind her back the support of the rising Russia of Red. The Turkish offensive began on August 26, the front collapsed almost immediately, already on September 9, the troops of the “victorious” Kemal were in Smyrna. And they staged a fire in the city first, which, of course, blamed the Greeks, and then a terrible massacre. Different sources talk about 60 or even 260 thousands of victims.
The world was dictated to the Turks and Greeks, of course, not from Moscow. In the Swiss city of Lausanne, dictated by the Allies, one and a half million Greeks from Asia Minor exchanged thousands of Turks from the islands and from mainland Greece for 600. But it was already later - very few people noticed how in Istanbul the battalions of the allied occupying forces changed the Greek gendarmes. But in October 1922, the “masters” returned to Istanbul - the soldiers of Kemal, which, by the way, was the impetus for a mass exodus from the city of Russian emigrants. Nobody even thought to claim ownership of Constantinople and Thrace - it turned out to be simply too hard for the allies. But Russia has become completely different, in order to demand the once-coveted Constantinople and the straits ...
For a long time, Turkey was officially called almost the best friend of the USSR. However, then the unexpected “step towards” to the centuries-old geopolitical adversary, which Soviet Russia made at the beginning of the 1920's, was usually ignored by historians. Or, at least, not too advertised. Especially after the majority of its organizers left the political scene from the ranks of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, or left the world completely.
Meanwhile, the position of disloyal neutrality, taken by Turkey already in World War II, showed that the stake on expanding cooperation with this country turned out to be at least not entirely correct.
Even taking into account the fact that the young republic after the Civil War so needed a "diplomatic breakthrough." Moreover, the funds of the RSFSR were also needed, and the Turks, it is impossible not to admit, were actually paying off for the supply of arms and military equipment.
By the way, the modern somersaults in Russian-Turkish relations clearly indicate that open arms are not quite the position that should be followed in political and business contacts with such partners. Just due to the fact that too "strong friendship" can sometimes be too expensive. No wonder Alexander III said: "Russia has only two ally - the army and the navy." Now there are four of them - aerospace forces and rocket forces have been added.
- Alexey Podymov
- http://www.stoletie.ru/territoriya_istorii/kak_rossija_turciju_ot_razdela_spasla_832.htm
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