Foreign News: TURKEY: STRATEGIC & SCRAPPY

Bigger than France, more populous than Yugoslavia, Turkey adjoins oil-rich Iran and sits astride the Dardanelles, through which the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet would have to pass in time of war. Along with Greece, Turkey has been newly invited to join NATO, to anchor down the Eastern end of the defense line. TIME Correspondent Jim Bell last week reported on strategic Turkey:

THE Turk is a nice guy to have on our side. He's a realist, he knows where he's going, he's got the guts and stamina to get there. He's a realist, certainly, in his dealings with the U.S. By coming to Turkey's aid in 1947, the Americans raised themselves to the position of second least hated foreign nation (least hated: the Germans). We have made a valuable gesture of recognition now by sponsoring Turkey for NATO membership. The Turks are properly appreciative. But it is a mistake to say that Turkey today is pro-U.S. We simply have something to offer the Turks. They trade us something we can use (position, courage, strength) for something we can give them (military and financial assistance).

The Turks wanted to get into NATO badly. More specifically they wanted a firm military partnership with the U.S. Surreya Agaoglu, a famous Istanbul woman lawyer who has known many Westerners (including the late Wendell Willkie), put it this way:

"We don't depend on anyone but the U.S. Norway and France aren't going to fight for Turkey, no matter what the North Atlantic Treaty says. The French wouldn't even fight for themselves in the last war. But the U.S. will fight for Turkey. Even without the Americans, we aren't afraid of anyone, including the Russians. But having the Americans with us makes it better."

Turkey emerged from World War II lonely and friendless. It had played the hard-to-get neutral, declaring war on Nazi Germany only at the last moment, in February 1945, in time to qualify for U.N. membership. It was cut off from the Balkans and the Arab world too, and isolated from Islam. No one loved the Turks. The Turks loved no one. Then the Moskofs (as the Turks call the Russians) started growling. Turkey's stout defiance of Soviet demands for joint control of the Dardanelles taught the U.S. and the Western world, in 1946 still under the dreamy illusion of being able to do business with Russia, a great deal. If you said no with conviction and determination, the Russians paused.

Under Western Hats

Today most Turks have no doubts about why they have been accepted into the Western community of nations. Ahmet Emin Yalman, independent, Western-minded (Columbia-educated) editor of the Istanbul Vatan (The Motherland), wrote: "It was the troops in Korea that paved the way [into NATO]. Had the unit not been sent to Korea, Turkey would have remained a second-rate state."

When the Korean war broke out, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his brilliant Foreign Minister, Fuat Köprülü, acted with courage and decision.