The Treaty of Friendship between Germany and Turkey was signed in Ankara on 18 June 1941 by Franz von Papen, the German ambassador, and Şükrü Saraçoğlu, the Turkish minister for foreign affairs, in duplicate, the German and Turkish texts being equally authentic. The preamble, without prejudice to each side’s existing engagements, places relations on a basis of mutual confidence. It is not the Clodius Agreement of October on chromite. The official text appeared in Resmî Gazete No. 4849 and in the Reichsgesetzblatt.

Article I: mutual respect for the integrity and inviolability of their territories, and no measure aimed directly or indirectly against the other contracting party. Article II: friendly communication on questions of common interest in order to bring about an understanding. A military-alliance or operations handbook is not transcribed. It is not the Tripartite Pact, nor the 1939 Anglo-French-Turkish treaty, which the preamble reserves.

Article III: ratification; instruments shall be exchanged forthwith in Berlin; it enters into force on the day of signature for ten years; extension shall be agreed in due time. An economic note of the same day announces negotiations for a treaty basis for exchanges, taking into account the structure of the two economies. A press-and-radio declaration asks that publications take account of the spirit of the treaty. A tariff schedule is not set out here.

Turkey severed diplomatic and commercial relations with Germany in August 1944 and declared war on 23 February 1945. Wikipedia records dissolution after the fall of the Reich, when Turkey joined the United Nations. Avalon prints the three articles plus the economic note and the press declaration.

Cover: the Reichsgesetzblatt page with the treaty text; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship; Treaty of Friendship Between Germany and Turkey (Avalon).