Yenice Conference Adana Conference or Yenice Conference ( Turkish : " Adana Görüşmesi " , " Adana Mülakatı " or " Yenice Görüşmesi " , " Yenice Mülakatı " ) was a meeting between Turkish President İsmet İnönü and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a railroad car parking on a storage track at Yenice near Adana on 30 – 31 January 1943 , where Churchill tried to persuade İnönü to join the Allied Forces and fight the Axis powers during World War II . Location . The event came to be known as the Adana Meeting later . But in fact , the meeting was held , not in Adana , but in a railroad car on a storage track at the Yenice Railway Station , It is the main railroad junction of the Adana – Mersin Railway Line and the main railroad from the north ( i . e . İstanbul - Bağdat Railway ) . Yenice is a town of Tarsus district in Mersin Province , Turkey . The choice of this location was decided after a series of talks between the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the British embassy in Ankara . The earlier choice of the British side was Cyprus ( then a part of British Empire ) and the choice of Turkish side was Ankara . Background . During World War II , all the neighbours of Turkey were either a part of the Axis powers or the Allies . In the west , Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany and Greece was occupied by German troops . Dodecanese , including Rhodes was a part of Italy . While the USSR was a neighbour at the north east , the southern neighbours were Syria , a part of Free France and Iraq , a part of the British Empire , and Iran was under USSR - British joint occupation . Turkey , however , managed to maintain its neutral status . Aim of the meeting . During the Casablanca Conference ( January 14 – 24 , 1943 ) , Churchill proposed to force Turkey to join the Allies in the war . General Marshall and other high - ranking US military showed extreme reluctance , for fear that the extension of the war to a new Turkish front would " burn the Allied logistics down the line " . However , U . S . President Roosevelt gave Churchill the green light on January 18 to ' play the Turkish hand ' . On January 25 , Churchill asked for an appointment from İnönü and the Adana Meeting was held just after the conference , between January 30 and February 1 , 1943 . Meeting . The teams were headed by İsmet İnönü and Winston Churchill . The other members of the Turkish side were Prime minister Şükrü Saracoğlu , Foreign minister Numan Menemencioğlu , Field marshal Fevzi Çakmak , and a group of advisers . The British team consisted of Harold Alexander , Henry Maitland Wilson , Sir Alan Brooke , Sir Wilfred Lindsell , Alexander Cadogan ( foreign ministry ) , Air Marshal Drummond and Commodore Dundas . During the meeting , the British tried to persuade Turkish side to join the Allies , but İnönü showed extreme reluctance to join the war . Churchill made lavish promises of military help ( code - named operation ' Hardihood ' ) . A list of military equipment was drawn up ( the ' Adana Lists ' ) , which - in the words of Churchill - would provide Turkey with war material ' to the full capacity of Turkish railways ' . In turn , Churchill requested access to Turkish air bases for the RAF , so the British could bomb the oil fields of Ploieşti in Romania , the principal source of oil for Germany and the Italian positions in Dodecanese . To put pressure on the Turks to give up their neutrality , Churchill made clear that - should Turkey refuse to join the Allies - he would not try to check the Soviets if they made a move to control the Dardanelles . Aftermath . In April 1943 , a British military delegation arrived in Ankara to implement " Operation Hardihood " . During the first stage of this operation , the British , led by General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson requested access of 25 RAF fighter squadrons to Turkish airports . In latter stages of the operation , the British planned on sending two full armoured divisions to Turkey . The Turks however were very fearful of the strong Nazi military presence in Bulgaria , and drowned the British military delegation in red tape . While giving Maitland Wilson every courtesy , the Turks started ' tortuous and interminable negotiations ' . Wilson urged Turkish commanders to teach their men mechanical skills , but noted that this meant that prospective tank crews ' had to be taught the workings of the internal combustion engine from page one of the book ' . When the construction of Turkish airfields went ahead of schedule , İnönü was warned that work proceeded too rapidly . The British frustration about the Turkish stalling tactics led to a serious deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the summer of 1943 . However , the disastrous British Dodecanese Campaign on September 13 , 1943 , where the Nazis easily fought off a British assault , ended the strife . The Dodecanese islands are situated at about south west of the Turkish coast , and the display of Nazi strength convinced the Turkish government that they had rightly pursued a policy of neutrality . And after the fiasco , the British were anxious to see Turkey remain neutral . Trivia . Although the meeting was held in Yenice , it is sometimes known as the Adana Meeting or Adana Conference . That ' s because the nearest airport to the Yenice was in Adana a city at the east of Yenice .