Turkey's importance at this stage of the war is geographical. The rugged plateau of Anatolia, insufficiently equipped though it is with roads or railways, is a bridge from the Middle East to one of Europe's softest spots, the Balkans. The islands just off Turkey's southern and southwestern coast are steppingstones for the sea road to an attack on Greece. And in the Middle East, across the bridge and beyond the steppingstones. Allied armies are growing.
For nearly four years a policy of strict neutrality has kept the Turkish bridge from being used by...