14/01/2025 / Is Turkey closer to the West or to the East? / Dr Karolina Wanda Olszowska

Center for French Culture and Francophone Studies and the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw invite you to the first session of the “Geopolitical Tuesday” seminar entitled:

 

Is Turkey closer to the West or to the East?

dr Karolina Wanda Olszowska (Jagiellonian University)

 

Tuesday 14 January 2025 at 3 pm (CET)

Registration: seminarium.okf@uw.edu.pl

Online seminar in English

Please note that the meeting will be recorded solely for scientific purposes. Participation in the meeting constitutes consent.

 

Bio

Karolina Wanda Olszowska, doctor of Humanities, historian, and Turkologist. Lecturer at the Jagiellonian University and co-founder and president of the Institute for Turkey Studies. Principal investigator of the research grants “Preludium 16” and “Opus 27.” Author of the book Turkish-American and Turkish-Soviet Relations between 1945 and 1952 (Kraków, 2023).

 

Summary

The lecture will focus on Turkey’s foreign policy from 1945 to 1952, a pivotal period during the Cold War when the country balanced Soviet pressure with cooperation from the United States. It will examine Turkey’s efforts to uphold its sovereignty over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, as well as its resistance to Soviet territorial claims. The lecture will highlight how aid from the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine enabled the modernisation of Turkey’s military; however, the limited scale of economic support sparked social tensions. It will also analyse the significance of Turkey’s participation in the Korean War as a condition for NATO membership in 1952, which solidified the country’s pro-Western course.