The Turkish Intelligence in the early Cold War: orchestrating a student raid on the leftist press, hunting communists and early relations with the OSS (1944–1946)

Drawing on American archives, this article contributes to the literature on the Turkish intelligence and Turkish-Soviet crisis in the early Cold War. It offers substantial evidence indicating the organizing role of the Turkish state in the riot against leftist press outlets in İstanbul on 4 December 1945. Then, challenging the conventional narrative regarding the origins and chronology of the Turkish-Soviet crisis, it shows that Turkey adopted a markedly anti-Soviet position in 1944, earlier than the infamous Sarper-Molotov meeting in June 1945. The article finally discusses the Turkish ‘communist hunt’ and the early establishment of relations between the Turkish and US intelligence.