Why did Hitler not attack Turkey?

Forums: Wwii, Hitler, Turkey, ww2, Axis Power
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If you look at the WW2 map, Hitler invaded almost everywhere around Turkey but didn't even touch Turkey. Why?
(OK. Hitler didn't really attack everywhere around Turkey. But Nazis came very close to Turkey, invading Greece)

My reasons:
1-) German Turkish non-aggression pact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2% ... ssion_Pact
2-) It was Italy that went into the Balkans and the Middle East and Hitler only reluctantly sent troops to these regions to back up his ally. Hitler was very Euro-centric - he had very little interest in acquiring territories outside of the continent. Germany was in Africa mainly to pull Italy's bacon out of the fire, as they were in the middle of being chased across the continent before the Germans showed up to save them, much to Mussolini's discomfort.
3-) Turkey could have helped him flank the USSR--though if he'd done Barbarossa right he wouldn't have needed any geographic help.
4-) Turkey was a useful neutral and provided Chromium in trade to the Germans.
5-) They also enabled some small indirect trade for Germany with the Allies.
6-) Unlike some other neutrals they also had a fairly robust military which for a while was actually being equipped by both the Axis and the Allies in an attempt to gain them as allies.
7-) Turkey is also quite difficult terrain for any would be conqueror. Aside from the mountainous terrain in Asian Turkey, Nobody would envy the Axis trying to force a crossing of the Bosphorus.
8.) We also have to remember that Hitler and the German people were, in part, acting out a revenge fantasy against their WW1 foes. And of course, Turkey had been a stalwart ally. Turkey sure seemed stalwart Ally to Germany at Gallipoli.
9-) There's also the fact that the portion of Turkey on the European side of the Bosphorus is so incredibly small that there was no point. It had no significant resources, and the territory wasn't strategically, or even tactically important. If he were to gain anything at all from attacking Turkey, he had to cross the Bosphorus. There's practically nothing on the European side to be worth pissing the Turks off, over. He was better off keeping them a 'friendly
but neutral' party.
10-) Hitler was a vegetarian Razz

(Joke)

What else?

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 7,124 • Replies: 18

[+3] - Ceili - 01/22/2013No, because you asked about Turkey. The genocide of Armenians is a historical event. That Hitler modeled his hitler youth and holocaust on the Young Turk movement and Armenian genocide is not a...

@cicibebe,

cicibebe wrote:

Hitler was very Euro-centric - he had very little interest in acquiring territories outside of the continent.

you've got a lot more reading to do.

Hitler had plans to take over the rest of the world - not just Europe.

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@ehBeth,

Right.

Heute Deutschland, morgen das Weldt.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Turkey and Germany were ALLIES in WW1. I suppose that Schicklegruber wanted a sort of "2nd string" he could rely upon

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@cicibebe,

this article might give you an idea why Germany did not invade Turkey :

http://www.cityofart.net/bship/turc_yavuz.html

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@ehBeth,

Cite?

1 Reply

@cicibebe,

you might want to add the article about Admiral Souchon to your reading list .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Souchon

from the article :

Quote:

Wilhelm Anton Souchon (German pronunciation: [suˈʃɔŋ]; 2 June 1864 – 13 January 1946) was a German AND Ottoman admiral in World War I who commanded the Kaiserliche Marine's Mediterranean squadron in the early days of the war .

. His initiative made him one of the most important influences on the entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I.

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Yeah . . . Hitler's army only fought in Africa because of the balmy climate.

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It's said that Hitler based his Holocaust on the Turkish genocide of Armenians.. Perhaps he gave you a miss because you'd already mastered the plan..

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@Ceili,

Well I suppose it could be said that the Turks modelled their slaughter of Armenians on the earlier Russian forced expulsion of the Circassians from the northwestern Caucasus between 1860 and 1870. About a million perished. Those who survived went to Anatolya under the protection of the Turks.

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and on and on it goes...

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@Ceili,

Are you Armenian? Why did you mention Armenian genocide?

1 Reply

@cicibebe,

No, because you asked about Turkey. The genocide of Armenians is a historical event. That Hitler modeled his hitler youth and holocaust on the Young Turk movement and Armenian genocide is not a secret. As to why he didn't attack Turkey, I dunno, but maybe that was his reason, he admired you. Then again, probably not, maybe your country was too far away. Maybe he had further plans down the road. I'm not a mind reader, just giving an opinion. C'est tout.

1 Reply

@cicibebe,

A better question might be why he didn't invade Spain after the Fall of France. That would have enabled him to close the Mediterranean to the U.S. and British Navys, making the North African campaign a sure thing for him.

Most historians agree that he knew he didn't have the ability to engage either Spain or Turkey and, as well, meet his other higher priority goals, which, at the time were to get Britain to negotiate a peace with him and then attack the USSR.

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@georgeob1,

Most realistic historians agree that his short- and long-term plans were unrealistic, and that he completely lacked the ability to judge military matters at their true value. If he had, he'd never have invaded the Soviet Union, or would have left it until far, far later. The string of military blunders for which that idiot was responsible is breathtaking. He was the best friend the Allies had on the mainland of Europe.

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@georgeob1,

Not sure about Turkey, but as for Spain, Hitler needed a friendly country as a "neutral" nation to use as a safe base for pro-Nazi activities. Switzerland didn't fill that bill; any German espionage agents in Switzerland would have been immediately interned for the duration. Franco and his government were very friendly to the Third Reich and German agents had a pretty free run of the land there. Portugal was a similar case except that its ports were also used by a host of Allied agents.

1 Reply

@Ceili,

I accept and know the Armenian Genocide happened. Unfortunately, Turkish government still denies it.

My thread was not about the Armenian Genocide. When you said "It's said that Hitler based his Holocaust on the Turkish genocide of Armenians.. Perhaps he gave you a miss because you'd already mastered the plan.." you was being 100% irrelevant and aggressive.

Can you cite from an authoritative and official that the Holocaust is based on the Armenian Genocide?

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@Lustig Andrei,

In an interesting historical anecdote, Just after his trip to Paris after the fall of France, Hitler travelled (by special train) across France to the Spanish border where he held a brief meeting with Gen. Franco. I'm not aware of any German records of the meeting, but an aide to Gen. Franco left a (perhaps self-serving) summary of the discussion. According to him Hitler (1) suggested that Spoain join the Axis powers; and (2) proposed stationing German troops in southern Spain, promising to take Gibraltar and return it to Spain. According to the aide, Franco's reply was that the people of Spain had suffered greviously in the civil war, and were not either able or willing to get in another one that did not involve them. He added that they were however able and willing to fight and defend their borders from any who would threaten them.

Some histories of the war note Hitler's expressed frustration after the meeting as he digested both this message and, more significantly, the refusal of the British to negotiate a separate peace. Soon afterwards he launched the air attacks that ended up in the Battle of Britain. All this does suggest some unrealistic fantasies in Hitler's plans as Setanta noted.

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@cicibebe,

Germany was an ally of the Turks during WW1. Maybe that's the reason.

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Why did Hitler not attack Turkey?

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