Intelligence as Covert Statecraft: The OSS, CIA’s Predecessor, in Neutral Turkey, 1939-1945
Öz
During the Second World War, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operated in neutral Turkey within a wider Allied effort to monitor Axis activity, limit German access to strategic materials, and influence Ankara's wartime choices. This article examines how OSS collection, liaison, and covert action interacted with diplomacy and economic warfare between 1942 and 1945. Methodologically, it uses a qualitative historical case study that process-traces two critical episodes, the DOGWOOD network and the May 1944 Evros sabotage, and triangulates OSS files, Foreign Relations of the United States volumes, British parliamentary debates, and Turkish newspapers. The article argues that intelligence in wartime Turkey was not merely ancillary to diplomacy. Rather, it supplied decision-relevant information on German-Turkish bargaining, sharpened Allied pressure over chrome exports and transport corridors, and, in limited instances, complemented diplomatic coercion through deniable operations. Turkish officials, however, cooperated selectively and instrumentally, using liaison to preserve formal neutrality and widen Ankara's bargaining room. The findings therefore support a bounded causal claim: OSS activity did not by itself determine Turkey's late-war realignment, but it increased Allied leverage at decisive moments and formed part of a broader repertoire of wartime statecraft.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Etik Beyan
Teşekkür
Kaynakça
- British House of Commons Debates (Hansard). Parliamentary Debates (5th series). Debate “Turkish Chrome Ore (Exports),” 18 April 1944, vol. 399, cols. 7–8; and 25 April 1944, vol. 399.
- Coleman, Archibald F. “Narrative Account of the Organization and Activities of the DOGWOOD Project.” Report dated 2 November 1944. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency FOIA Electronic Reading Room (Doc. 0000493983).
- Cumhuriyet [Istanbul]. “Trakya’da Bir Tren Köprüsü Yıkıldı” [A Railway Bridge Was Destroyed in Thrace]. 2 June 1944.
- Cumhuriyet [Istanbul]. “Krom İhracatımız ve İngiliz Basını” [Our Chrome Exports and the British Press]. 9 Nisan 1944.
- Cumhuriyet [Istanbul]. “Krom İhracatımız” [Our Chrome Exports]. 14 Nisan 1944
- Cumhuriyet [Istanbul]. “Krom Hakkında Verdiğimiz Karar” [The Decision We Made About Chrome]. 21 Nisan 1944.
- Donovan, William J. Memorandum to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 18 June 1944. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (President’s Secretary’s File, Box 4).
- Imperial War Museum (UK). Photograph K 8889, “Turkey Enters the War” (Turkish Parliament in session, 23 Feb 1945).
Ayrıntılar
Birincil Dil
İngilizce
Konular
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Tarihi, Genel Türk Tarihi (Diğer)
Bölüm
Araştırma Makalesi
Yazarlar
Murat Toman
*
0000-0002-4698-7520
Türkiye
Yayımlanma Tarihi
31 Mart 2026
Gönderilme Tarihi
1 Ekim 2025
Kabul Tarihi
29 Mart 2026
Yayımlandığı Sayı
Yıl 2026 Cilt: 11 Sayı: 1