Arms Trade Between Germany and Turkey during the Republican Period 1923-1945
Fahri Türk
Keywords: Turkey, Germany, Turkish-German Arms-trade, Arms- and Munitionsfactories
Abstract
The Turkish-German relations regarding arms and munition trade in the Ottoman time were promoted in the republican era as well, in which Turkey concentrated on establishing factories with German aid in order to produce these weapons by herself rather than importing them from Germany as it was practised in recent decades. On the other hand, according to Versay Treaty German weapon traders were prohibited from producing arms and munitions in their homeland. As German traders were forced to produce weapons abroad in order to gain benefit, they considered Turkey as natural partner. This article deals with the Turkish-German arms trade between 1923 and 1945, which bases overwhelmingly on documents from the archives by the Political Archives of German Foreign Ministry.