Soviet Foreign Policy Towards Greece and Turkey: Contrast within Coherence.

This thesis analyzes the evolution of post-1945 Soviet foreign policy towards Greece and Turkey. The Soviet Union has sought to impair and eliminate Greek and Turkish security ties to NATO and to the United States. Key political, diplomatic, economic, and propagandistic events in Soviet-Greek and Soviet-Turkish relations suggest patterns of Soviet objectives and successes in each country. The Soviet Union has pursued unobtrusive approaches towards Greece, while making more concerted efforts through diplomatic, economic, and perhaps clandestine means to increase Soviet influence in Turkey. In 1978-1979, Turkeys foreign policy seemed to be moderately influenced by Soviet preferences, while a new situation has existed since 1980. The anti-American orientation of Andreas Papandreous government may offer unprecedented opportunities to Soviet diplomacy in Greece. U.S. blunders made on an ad hoc short-term basis, with respect to the national sensitivities of both countries have facilitated the successes of Soviet foreign policy. The Greek and Turkish cases suggest that the Soviets have profited from U.S. errors in their implementation of a long-term and consistent policy to reduce U.S. influence in Western Europe.