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"Armed Minorities": The Cold War, Human Rights, and Ethnicity in U.S.-Turkish Relations

Helicke, James C.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420159586

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation examines international and domestic debates about minorities in Turkey—Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and Kurds—during the first decade of the Cold War, 1945-1955. It argues that lingering problems of ethnic identity and minorities formed an important backdrop to the emergence of the Cold War in the Middle East in a way that American officials sometimes failed to understand fully. International Cold War political intrigues also added urgency and complexity to Turkish official and public attitudes toward minorities, related views of human rights, and formulations of security. As the Kemalist regime consolidated power in Turkey in the interwar period, U.S. official attitudes gradually perceived minority problems as potentially disruptive of American business and strategic interests. As U.S. policymakers stressed the growing threat of global communism and the importance of the Straits after the Second World War, many Turks saw an existential threat in Soviet territorial claims on Turkey that were backed by foreign Armenians and Kurds at the new United Nations. Minority questions were also drawn into the postwar debates over the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Genocide Convention. The fact that the term “genocide” first came into currency in the immediate postwar period reinforced Turkey’s association of the Armenian Genocide with Soviet territorial claims. U.S. diplomats dismissed international criticism of Turkey and emphasized Turkey’s national unity as essential to American interests. Turkey’s government also advanced a new vision of minorities that synthesized Turkish nationalism, international human rights discourse, and the fight against communism. The election of an American citizen, Athenagoras I, as Ecumenical Patriarch embodied that new, but problematic synthesis. Athenagoras’ efforts to insert himself into global Cold War politics by vying for influence over Orthodox churches in the Middle East and Eastern Europe also drew criticism from Turkish nationalists and some American officials who thought his pro-Americanism went too far. Simultaneous with its decision to send troops to Korea and its bid for NATO membership, Turkey was forced to deal with the mass influx of ethnic Turks expelled from Bulgaria. A growing Turkish nationalist emphasis on the plight of ethnic Turks abroad infused Turkish conceptualizations of human rights and its position toward self-determination for Cyprus. Tensions between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus spilled over into a devastating 1955 anti-minority riot and signaled the endurance of minority problems for the U.S.-Turkish partnership.
Peter Hahn, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Jane Hathaway, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jennifer Siegel, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
330 p.
History
Turkey; United States; Foreign Relations; Cold War; Minorities; Human Rights; Ethnicity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Helicke, J. C. (2015). "Armed Minorities": The Cold War, Human Rights, and Ethnicity in U.S.-Turkish Relations [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420159586

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Helicke, James. "Armed Minorities": The Cold War, Human Rights, and Ethnicity in U.S.-Turkish Relations. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420159586.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Helicke, James. ""Armed Minorities": The Cold War, Human Rights, and Ethnicity in U.S.-Turkish Relations." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420159586

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1420159586
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.