Political& Cultural Relations Between Turkey And Egypt (1923-1938)

Egypt was under Ottoman de facto rule between 1517 and 1882 for 365 years. In legal terms, however, Turkey-Egypt relations ruptured with Lausanne Agreement on 24th July 1924. After WW I, both countries were occupied by imperialist countries including England and their independence movements converged Turkish and Egyptian people. Also, the Egyptian people gave moral and material support to the Turkish National Struggle. In this context, winning of the Turkish Independence War was acclaimed enthusiastically in Egypt and gave rise to hopes that total independence would be achieved. The Egyptian press described the Turkish Independence War as a triumph of the East and Islam over the West while depicting Mustafa Kemal Pasha as “the Hero of the East” and “the Champion of Islam”. However, this positive atmosphere vanished due to such reasons as proclamation of the Republic and western revolutionary movements in Turkey. Although certain diplomatic relations were established between Turkey and Egypt in 1926, it is seen that the relations between the two countries couldn’t be based on sincere friendship and trust during the period analysed in this study. Even though the relations between 1926 and 1934 didn’t turn into a war, frequent tensions were experienced. Nevertheless, noticeable improvements were achieved in the relations between 1934 and 1938, the main factor of which was not actually the bilateral relations but in fact the changes in the political conjuncture of Europe from 1934 onwards. On the eve of WW II, both Egypt and Turkey gave importance to security, which also had an effect on turning the bilateral relations back into amicable terms. In this study, the relations between Turkey and Egypt between 1923 and 1938 will be presented upon T.R. Prime Ministry State Archive, T.R. Presidency Archive and English Foreign Affairs and Parliament Archive records and periodicals.