British-Turkish relations

The British-Turkish relations describe the bilateral relationship between Turkey and the United Kingdom .

The two states were already on different sides in different wars, for example the First World War , but they also participated as allies in the Crimean War. Both countries maintain an embassy in the respective capital of the other country, there is a British embassy in Ankara and a Turkish embassy in London .

State visits

Turkey and the United Kingdom have good bilateral relations. In November 1967 the then Turkish President Cevdet Sunay made a state visit, in July 1988 Kenan Evren . Queen Elizabeth II already visited Turkey twice, in October 1971 and in May 2008, as part of a state visit. Both the UK and Turkey are members of the G20 . The United Kingdom supports Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union . In May 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a state visit to Great Britain.

First World War

Edward VIII with the Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Istanbul on September 4, 1936

Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Queen Elizabeth II at the Chatham House awards ceremony in November 2010

During the First World War, Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, as the predecessors of today's Turkey, faced each other as war opponents. In the Balfour Declaration , Great Britain declared its intention to support the establishment of a Jewish state on the territory of Palestine, although an independent Arab state had previously been discussed in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence . The intention behind it was to win the Arabs as allies against the Ottoman Empire, which succeeded and resulted in the Arab revolt and the defeat of the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire , of which Palestine was part, disintegrated as a result of the First World War and was dissolved in 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne .

Cyprus conflict

In 1878 the Ottoman Empire leased the island of Cyprus to the United Kingdom for support in the Russo-Ottoman War . With the start of World War I in 1914, Great Britain formally annexed Cyprus as a colony . After Cyprus gained independence in 1960, Turkey and Great Britain became the declared protective powers of the new state with the London Guarantee Treaty in 1959 . Great Britain kept two military bases on the island, Akrotiri and Dekelia .

As a result of a coup from Cyprus supported by the Greek military dictatorship with the aim of annexing the island to Greece , Turkey invaded the north of the island on July 20, 1974. As a result, the Turks drove the Greek Cypriots from the north of the island, who previously made up 80% of the population there, while 60,000 Cypriot Turks fled the south to the north. Eventually the island was divided into the Turkish north and the Greek south along a UN-monitored green line. In 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared its independence, which until today is only recognized by Turkey. The Cyprus conflict is one of the obstacles to Turkey joining the EU today.

trade

The United Kingdom is the second largest importer of goods from Turkey after Germany . Turkey exports around 8% of its total goods to the United Kingdom. Every year around two million Britons go on vacation to Turkey, and around 100,000 Turks visit the United Kingdom every year. In 2017, the British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared at a meeting in Ankara that they wanted to intensify mutual trade relations, and both sides wanted to increase the mutual trade volume from 15 to 20 billion US dollars . In this context, an armaments cooperation worth millions was decided.

EU membership

The United Kingdom was the main supporter of Turkey's opening negotiations with the European Union . The EU and Turkey are linked by a customs union that came into force on December 31, 1995. Until Brexit , the British government under Cameron supported Turkey's accession to the EU.

literature

Dilek Barlas, Şuhnaz Yilmaz: Managing the transition from Pax Britannica to Pax Americana: Turkey's relations with Britain and the US in a turbulent era (1929–47). In: Turkish Studies. 2016, pp. 1–25. (English)

Web links

Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on relations with the United Kingdom (English)

Individual evidence

^ Turkish Embassy in London. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .
↑ Turkey and Great Britain want to form a new axis in Europe . In: GERMAN BUSINESS NEWS . ( deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de [accessed June 24, 2018]).
↑ openning SBA Administration Official Web .... n. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .
↑ May and Erdoğan conclude armaments deal worth millions. In: ZEIT online. January 28, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017 .
^ Turkey - Trade - European Commission. Retrieved June 22, 2016 .

[1] Turkish Embassy in London. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .

[2] Turkey and Great Britain want to form a new axis in Europe . In: GERMAN BUSINESS NEWS . ( deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de [accessed June 24, 2018]).

[3] openning SBA Administration Official Web .... n. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .

[4] May and Erdoğan conclude armaments deal worth millions. In: ZEIT online. January 28, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017 .

[5] Turkey - Trade - European Commission. Retrieved June 22, 2016 .