Friends or foes? Diplomatic relations between Italy and Turkey, 1923-36

Abstract

This article pursues a number of aims. The first two are related to Italian-Turkish bilateral relations. Thus, it aims to offer an introduction to Italian-Turkish relations as an under-studied aspect of Turkish foreign policy in the inter-war years, based on the documents studied in Italian, British, and, to a lesser extent, French diplomatic archives. Second, it is an attempt to depart from conventional Turkish diplomatic historiography by evaluating these relations on the basis of shifts (or inconsistencies) rather than solely in terms of continuity. The article will thus seek out the sources and consequences of such shifts in the relations between the two countries. To this end, the main focus of the present work will be on the period of "warmth" in Italian-Turkish relations between 1928 and 1932 rather than the "cooling off" and "frost" between 1932 and 1936. Finally, this article aims to address Italian-Turkish relations as an example of the contradictions Ankara displayed in formulating its general foreign policy in the early Republican period. Such contradictions resulted from shifts and re-orientations in foreign relations mostly for pragmatic reasons in search of security in an external environment largely perceived as hostile to Turkey.