Insights of the Turkish Association of Peace-Lovers on the Cold War

Authors : Pınar Kahya

Pages : 91-112

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Publication Date : 2021-03-16

Article Type : Research

Abstract :1950s are an important historical point for Turkish foreign policy literature and researches on Turkish political thought. There is a general opinion in academia and Turkish Foreign Affairs that the main drive for Turkey’s participation in the capitalist bloc led by the US after the war was due to its reflex for protecting national interests against "Soviet expansionism”. This is deep-seated in the minds of scholars and is a mainstream approach in the literature. Such interpretation implies an approach that reduces the Cold War to a mere competition between two superpowers. There is a growing number of studies which are critical to this mainstream reading of the Cold War. This study examines contributions of the Turkish Association of Peace-Lovers to the efforts towards explaining the political atmosphere in 1950s that succeeded in devising an alternative reading of relations of Turkey with the world.
Keywords : Turkish Association of Peace-Lovers, Turkey, Cold War, the USSR, 1950s