“Every dollar spent in Türkiye is like a seed planted in a fertile soil that will sprout prosperity and abundance. / Türkiye’de sarfedilen her dolar münbit bir toprağa verilmiş refah ve bereket filizleri verecek birer tohum gibidir”

Turkish President Celâl Bayar, from Speech at the Washington National Press Club, January 28, 1954

By Mehmet Ali Munir

Korean War, NATO, and a Road to America
Ottoman-American relations started upon the arrival of American merchant ships in Izmir port in 1797, altered in interest and intensity, and continued with interruptions all the way during the Great War.
The US failed to get Türkiye on the Allied side because of her neutrality policy during World War II. Türkiye later participated symbolically in World War II, as required by the Yalta Conference, which conditioned a combat history against Germany and Japan to become a member of the United Nations.
During the post-war period known as the Cold War, the Soviets emerged as a significant threat. Türkiye was already feeling Soviet pressure when the USSR announced that the Friendship Treaty of 1925 would not be extended. On June 7, 1945, Foreign Minister Molotov informed Selim Sarper, the Turkish Ambassador to Moscow, that Türkiye would give Kars and Ardahan provinces, land, and sea bases in the Straits to the Soviets and abolish the Montreux Convention.
It was time to align with the Western block for existential safety since the US declared the Truman Doctrine as a “Containment Policy” against the Soviet Union. Marshall Plan (1947-1951) was implemented to aid European countries, including Türkiye, with $225 million in financial and $305 million in military aid for modernization and economic development. Türkiye also moved from a single-party state to a multi-party-political regime with 1947 Elections.
On May 22, 1950, Celâl Bayar, head of the Democratic Party, a splinter from the ruling Republican Peoples Party,1 was elected President of the Turkish Republic, with Adnan Menderes as his prime minister after a landslide election victory.
Shortly thereafter, Turkish troops joined in the Korean War (1950-1953) as the first country to respond to the United Nations Security Council’s call after the United States. Türkiye became a member of NATO in 1952, and Bayar quickly revisited Greece2 to build friendship within this military framework. Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, Eisenhower also visited Türkiye in 1952 to meet with civil and military officials.
In September 1953, during the presentation of a letter of credentials to President Bayar, Avra M. Warren, the newly appointed US Ambassador to Türkiye, presented the newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s invitation to President Bayar to the United States as “his guest and the American people’s guest.”
A telegram signed by Ambassador John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State, stated that the delegations’ visit should be limited to ten people3 and that Türkiye would cover the group’s travel expenses to New York.

1954 Visit
1954 was a general election year in Türkiye. President Bayar accepted the invitation and began preparations for the visit, leaving with his wife, Reşide Bayar, from Istanbul for England on January 18, 1954. After staying in England for 3 days, they departed for America on an ocean liner, the British Cunard-White Star Line “RMS Mauretinia” from Southampton Port. They arrived in New York on January 26, 1954.
In New York, Bayar visited the United Nations and NBC Television and attended a ball given in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
During the later stages of the visit to America,4 the Turkish delegation visited cities, industries, universities, and organizations.
President Bayar gave essential speeches to the American Jewish Committee in New York and the Armenian American National Council and an address to a joint session of Congress as the first Turkish statesman to address this body.5
Bayar and his entourage left New York on February 27, returning to Naples on the Italian ocean liner Andera Doria and from there to Türkiye on a warship.
After Celâl Bayar visited the US in 1955, Democrat Party Edirne deputy Cemal Köprülü submitted a bill regarding Turkish culture lessons in minority schools to be given by the Ministry of National Education civil servants and teachers appointed after the passage of the law. Religious tensions resulted in September 6-7 Incidents approximately 18 months after Bayar’s return from the US. The behind-the-scenes plotters and instigators of the riots were never fully discovered or disclosed.
After all, the peaceful and understanding speeches by President Celâl Bayar during his visit to the US in 1954, a precarious antagonistic tension still exists between Türkiye and Greece after seventy years. ■

Turkish President Celâl Bayar’s 1954 Speeches (excerpts)

“Since the day we declared the Republic of Türkiye, we Turks have remained loyal to the principles of ‘Peace at home, peace in the world’ and have considered the establishment of an international organization that will prove to the aggressor that aggression will not go unpunished and that will teach the citizens of the world to stay away from jealousy and ambition as the only solution to prevent future wars.”
From speech at the dinner in Honor of Eisenhower, January 30, 1954
“Wherever the Jews have found the opportunity granted by a liberal understanding of nationality, they have become a useful element as citizens. I can show the Jews of Türkiye as an example of this.”
From speech to the American Jewish Committee, Gold Suite Room of Savoy-Plaza Hotel, New York, January 31, 1954
“The interests of us, the children of the Mediterranean, the Turks, and the Greeks, are common today. If there is a danger that threatens them, they are together against that danger. It has become a historical necessity for the Turks and the Greeks to form a unity of destiny in the face of both common interests and common dangers. As a result of this, Türkiye looks upon Greece as a brother in the true sense.”
From speech at the Reception Ceremony Organized by the Archbishop of the Orthodox Church of North and South America, January 31, 1954