The Significance of the Black Sea in Turko-Soviet Relations in 1939-1946

Abstract

The Black Sea and the Black Sea Straits during World War II and immediately after its end had a huge impact on the formation of Turkish-Soviet relations. Already at the beginning of the war, Moscow tried to force Ankara to revise the Montreux Treaty. Soviet pressure depended on the war situation and resurfaced as the Allies began winning the war. In 1945, Turkey, fearing a lack of support in the event of a conflict with the Soviet Union, was ready to make concessions, and in the following year Moscow began to boldly demand a revision of the Montreux Treaty in its notes in such a way that the straits would be decided by the Black Sea states, and the security guards Turkey and the Soviet Union were to become the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Ankara could only have been saved by Western support during this period - and in the longer context by the outbreak of the Cold War.