ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS TO BRITISH AND GERMAN AMBASSADORS IN TURKEY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
TÜRKİYE’DE II. DÜNYA SAVAŞI SIRASINDA İNGİLİZ VE ALMAN BÜYÜKELÇİLERİNE SUİKAST GİRİŞİMİ

Author : Cengiz ATLI
Number of pages : 55-71

Abstract

The main purpose of Turkey after the outbreak of the Second World War was to keep the country out of the war. While Turkey was going through a troubled period in the foreign policy, it was also experiencing hardships in the domestic policy. In the country, the countries particularly Russia, England and France did not want Turkey to remain out of the war. All the countries were uneasy while Germany was marching to the Balkans. Ambassadors were leaving these regions due to the occupation. Istanbul was one of the stations for the ambassadors who were leaving. Rendell, who was serving as the ambassador of Sofia, and the members of the embassy also chose Istanbul as a safe station. When Rendell went to Pera Palas Hotel to stay after having come to Istanbul, it turned out that he was tried to be assassinated by placing bomb in his luggage. While Rendell and his family survived from the event without being wounded, four people died and twenty-one people were wounded. The second attempt that was intended to disturb the peace in the country was the assassination attempted against the German ambassador Van Popen in 1942 in Ankara. While Papen and his wife escaped from the assassination without injury, the woman, who was walking behind them, and two girls were wounded due to the effect of the bomb. Assassinator was badly crashed into pieces as the bomb exploded in his hand. Concerning the event, four people, among whom were with Russian origin, were caught. While this event was normalizing Turkish-German relationships, it gradually deteriorated Turkish-Russia relationships. By personally engaging with the event, Turkish authorities found out the criminals, who were responsible for the assassination and punished them. As a consequence of the evaluations carried out, it came out that the assassination was plotted by the Russian Secret Organization (Gestapa). The subject, which constitutes of our article, tries to explain the domestic issues experienced in Turkey during the Second World War in line with the British Archives, newspapers of the period and through the original sources.

Keywords

Ambassador, Alliance, The Second World War, Assassination, İsmet İnönü Government

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