740.0011 European War 1939/4293: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:47 p.m.]
112. 1. Apart from a sentiment of regret at the spoliation of a friendly neighbor the Turkish Government regards without perturbation the Russian occupation of Bessarabia. That action is regarded as primarily strategic in intention of [as?] designed to give the Soviet Union a more defensible southwestern frontier and not indicative of any purpose of taking further more offensive action in the Balkan Peninsula.
2. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has just informed me that all the information available to him indicates that the Russian move was made without previous arrangement or even knowledge on the part of the Axis Powers which when informed of the Soviet ultimatum hastened to advise the Rumanian Government to yield in order to avert a disturbance of the peace and in return offered to exert their influence with Hungary and Bulgaria to restrain them from pressing their territorial claims. He understands that the Bulgarian Government has already assured the Yugoslav Government that it will not attack Rumania; the Turks therefore feel that (at least in the present phase of developments) there is still not reason to apprehend an extension of hostilities to the Balkans.
[Page 487]3. [He] acknowledged only a rather indefinite feeling of uncertainty as regards Bulgaria whose troops are concentrated on the Turkish frontier not out of fear of aggressive action by this Government but because of an apprehension that in case of an invasion of the Peninsula the Turkish Army would be tempted to advance into Bulgarian territory to a more secure line of defense. He said, however, that although Turkish troops were likewise massed on the frontier these concentrations on either side were fully understood by both Governments as natural military precautions and implied no ill feeling. His somewhat vague uneasiness about possible Bulgarian action seemed to be based only on the general political restlessness of that country.
4. He stated that this country has taken no new military measures as a result of the Bessarabian matter and expressly denied the report that the Turkish fleet had been sent into the Black Sea.
Repeated to Bucharest, Moscow, Sofia.