Baghdad Pact as Reflected in Turkish Weekly “Akis” (50s of XX Century)

Abstract

The article deals with the history of the Baghdad Pact — a kind of symbol of the “cold war” in the middle of the last century in the Middle East, which Turkey be-came an active promoter of. The author traces the development of events that caused a great resonance in society. It is shown that the growing protest mood found its response on the pages of the “Akis” weekly, the first neutral democratic print organ in Turkey, which officially did not belong to any political party. The relevance of the article is seen in the fact that the well-known modern changes in the Middle East policy of Turkey, aimed primarily at taking into account the national interests of the country, originate from regional events in the Middle East in the 50s of the last century. It is argued that the materials of “Akis” in a specific context, as a kind of lessons from the past, make it possible to understand and appreciate many of the nuances of modern difficult Arab-Turkish relations, the roots of which go back to events that were directly related to the Baghdad Pact.