Leading Turkish Personalities in the British Archives in the 1980s

The 1980s has an important place in the history of the Republic of Turkey. After the 12 September 1980 military coup, the country entered a new era and this had led the other countries to follow more closely Turkey. In this respect, as having an efficient foreign policy, Britain also showed a maximum effort to follow closely developments in Turkey through its Embassy in Ankara. The leading personalities from the different sections of Turkish society had a certain effect on the determination of the agenda of the country in the 80s. British authorities were aware of this fact in Turkey and they collected information about people who were in key positions and formed an archive. Accordingly, the files were generated about many people from the field of politics to economics. This situation certainly had provided an opportunity for Britain to understand better the developments in Turkey and to analyze the impact of the prominent people in the events. In particular, some of the detailed information given about the leading personalities in Turkey indicates that how much importance British gave to this information gathering. In this context, by scanning the British archives, this study revealed the information about the leading personalities in Turkey in the 80s taken place in the British documents.

Keywords

The 12 September 1980 Turkish Military Coup, Anglo-Turkish Relations, British Foreign Policy.