Evening star., 1941-08-27
Turkey-IsoIuted Neutral

Russian invasion of Iran is that from
Turkey, its westward neighbor. Al
though the Ankara government has
proclaimed its neutrality, Turkish
opinion, official and non-official
alike, expresses sympathy with the
Iranians, deplores the invasion and
breads the consequences.
Turkish alarm and resentment
would probably be much keener if
Ankara had not recently received
assurances from both Britain and
Russia that its neutrality would be
respected and that it could count
upon aid in case of an attack by the
Axis. Still, the Turks dread a mill
tary occupation of Iran, especially by
Russia, which has long coveted that
portion of the country adjacent to
the Turkish border. Mindful of the
imperialistic past, Ankara is in
clined to be skeptical of the value of
diplomatic assurances, once Northern
Iran is in Russian hands.
This, however, does not imply any
tendency to veer toward the Axis.
Everything indicates that Turkey
would fight German attempt to
cross its territory to aid Iran. What
tends to reassure the Turks in this
respect is the geographical difficulty
of such an undertaking. From the
Straits to Northern Iran is approxi-
mately 1000 miles across the plateau
of Asia Minor, eliminating in a
mountainous and almost roadless
region near the Iranian border Even
if Turkey should acquiesce in such a
violation of its neutrality, the nat
ural difficulties of a German expedi-
ton would be serious With the stout
resistance of the brave Turkish Army,
backed by British and Russian aid,
the game for Germany would not
appear worth the candle.
What doubtless depreSSes the
Turks most is their increased sense
of political and moral isolation. A
spokesman of the Turkish Embassy
in London put it very we'll when he
stated that the Anglo Russian in
vasion of Iran hedges Turkey with
war and makes the maintenance of
neutrality more difficult than ever"
Turkey now becomes another neu-
tral island in sea of war, like
Sweden and Switzerland, with all
the latent dangers which such a
situation implies.
Turco-Iranian relations were very
close. Both countries have been
going through the same process of
national regeneration under the
leadership OF two masterful patriots.
The late Mustapha Kemal and Reza
Shah had the same aims and under
stood each other. Four years ago
they tried to preserve the whole
Moslem Near and Middle East from
foreign aggression by engineering a
treaty between Turkey, Iran, Iraq
and Afghanistan, which was sig
nificantly signed at the Saadabad
Palace in Teheran, the Iranian capi-
tai. This pact provided for mutual
friendship and joint consultation
against external dangers, though
specific military aid was not prom
ised. 1t is reported that Iran has
invoked the treaty, but this move, if
made, should have no practical re-
suit. Turkey already has announced
its neutrality, Afghanistan is too
weak to give aid even if it so desired,
while Iraq is under British occupa-
ton.
The net result of the Anglo-Rus-
sian invasion of Iran upon Turkey
presumably will be to make it cling
all the more tightly to it's neutrality
unless it, too, is attacked. But, for
the moment, at least, this seems un-
likely. Thus the chances are that
Turkey will continue to pursue its
path of precarious isolation, hoping
for the best but prepared for worse
to come.