Turkish-American Relations since 1783

2023-01-01
American and Turkish relations have a long history dating back to Ottoman times. It is widely accepted that the first noteworthy interaction started with the activities of the American merchants and missionaries in the Ottoman territory. The bilateral relations gained pace with the First World War and mercurially developed after the Second World War. The rapprochement between Turkey and the United States during the early part of the twentieth century is considered an unintended outcome of Turkish modernization.1 The period between two world wars has not received as much academic attention as one would have expected, even though the latter course of bilateral relations has been built upon the encounters within this interval. Considering the bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States, several crucial factors—this is, political, economic, cultural, and military—need to be considered. Some of these factors can be listed as the tensions between domestic and foreign policy, the role of key figures and organizations, the interaction of multiple variables in policy formation in each specific country, and the impact of international developments on foreign policy decisions.2 In this chapter, this rather understudied period of bilateral relations will be analyzed and conceptualized comprehensively.
Citation Formats
E. Çengel, Turkish-American Relations since 1783. 2023.