Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
A New-Old Neighbor: Turkish Republic & The Balkans, Athens, Yunanistan, 23 - 25 Kasım 2023, ss.1-8
Greek-Turkish Sports Relations during
Interwar Period: Seeking Peace and Friendship between the Two Nations
Gülen Göktürk Baltas & Andreas Baltas
This paper examines the impact of Greek-Turkish sports
relations, which developed during the 1930s, as a means of bringing closer the
two countries and tightening the relations between the two nations. The signing
of the Treaty of Lausanne marked the transformation of the foreign policy of Greece
and Turkey, which prioritized the consequences caused by previous wars by
securing their borders and maintaining their integrity. In the beginning of
October 1929, at the 27th World Peace Conference, convened in Athens, the
proposal of the Greek politician Alexandros Papanastasiou aiming at studying
common interests of the peoples of the peninsula through the realization of
annual Balkan conferences was accepted. The efforts developed by the sports
authorities of the states of the peninsula for the establishment of the Balkan
Games were also included in this broader framework of promoting the Balkan friendship.
The games were initiated in Athens in 1929 and increasingly became an integral
part of the political, cultural and social life of the area, functioning, among
other things, as a meeting ground for Greek and Turkish athletes. The effort to
normalize Greek-Turkish relations was also strengthened by the frequent
football games that took place between Greek and Turkish football teams,
apparently following encouragement of the politicians of both sides. Primary sources
of our research are the archives of sports authorities, as well as the press of
the era. Through this paper, sport is presented as a tool for friendship between
Greece and Turkey after the wars between them and provides evidence for the
occasional positive influence of sport in international relations.