Romanian-Turkish Relations in the 20th Century

No other influence has been greater on the Romanian space in the last millennium than the Turkish influence

Călin Coțoiu and Steliu Lambru, 23.03.2026, 20:20

No other influence has been greater on the Romanian space in the last millennium than the Turkish influence. Since 1877, after Romania gained its state independence, relations have entered new territory. In the 20th century, Romania and Turkey have built a privileged relationship based on tradition.

Legal adviser Radu Boroș, specialized in air law, told the Oral History Center of the Romanian Broadcasting in 1995 how bilateral relations evolved after the First World War:

“Kemal, the first thing he did, was to seek to isolate himself from Europe. And one of his policy points, in this decision to isolate himself, was to transfer the capital of Turkey from Istanbul to Ankara. And in Istanbul he did not want to add any kind of commercial, financial, or other combinations with the powers of the European continent. That is why he interrupted the air line that the Franco-Romanian Society had been running since 1920 on the Paris-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Istanbul route.”

Gradually, both the Europeans and the Turks understood that they could not move forward separately. And the Romanians were the ones who opened the way for rapprochement. Here is Radu Boroș.

“Until 1938-39, when the Treaty of Lausanne changed the status of the straits, the Turks did not want to hear about any air connection to Constantinople. It was only after the Treaty of Lausanne that the issue was raised, and the possibility of flights from Europe to Istanbul opened up. We, as Romanians, within the Balkan Agreement, in the aviation section, also had the issue of air transport, which also provided for a connection with Turkey. While with the other countries our objective was to connect the capitals, with Turkey our objective was not to connect to Ankara, the capital, but to connect to Istanbul. Romania’s air policy included the establishment of airlines as support, as a reinforcement of our maritime navigation lines. Despite all the efforts made to obtain authorization from Turkey to build the line to Istanbul, we were unsuccessful. We did not receive any response, neither negative nor positive, we were always told to wait. In the General Assembly of the Economic Council of Balkan Agreement, in the session of April 1939, towards the end of the meeting, the president of the Turkish delegation, Hasan Saka, informed us that the Turkish authorities urgently invited a Romanian delegation to Ankara to conclude a concession contract for a Bucharest-Istanbul line with the LARES Aviation Company.”

Vasile Șandru worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1994 he recalled the process of normalizing Romanian-Turkish relations, although the two were separated by the barrier of opposing military blocs.

“Romania was the first to break this barrier. As a participating country in the Warsaw Pact, Romania was the first to take this step of normalizing relations with Greece and Turkey. As for bilateral problems between Romania and these two countries, they were, first of all, those related to financial arrears, that is, some assets that had belonged to the nationals of these countries, nationalized in Romania, after 1948. An agreement could not be reached due to the very large difference between the claims of the former owners and what the Romanian side could offer. But this was not a problem that would generally prevent the development of relations. The main impediment had been, practically, dictated by belonging to opposing blocs.”

The visit of the Romanian Prime Minister in 1966 was the one that opened the future cooperation. Vasile Șandru once again.

“There was a large delegation, led by Prime Minister Maurer, which was attended by our Foreign Minister, and many representatives of the economic ministries. There were deputy ministers from metallurgy, machine manufacture, transport, culture, and so on. The visit took place in an exceptional atmosphere, the Romanian Prime Minister was received with all the honors, with a company of honor and so on, by Prime Minister Demirel at the airport. The entire protocol part was organized, with wreaths being laid at the mausoleum of Ataturk. What seemed very interesting to me at the time, I think almost the entire government participated in the official discussions from the Turkish side. There were at least 20-30 people on the Turkish side of the table, in two rows, who attended these discussions, and I can tell you that they were absorbing Maurer’s words. Maurer gave them a presentation on the problems of peaceful coexistence, using the terminology of the time. Maurer spoke about the need for peaceful coexistence as a result of the evolution and the technical-scientific revolution, of economic development, about the role of small and medium-sized countries, about the role of countries like Romania and Turkey in promoting détente. On this occasion, a whole series of agreements were signed. An agreement was signed that resolved the problem of financial arrears. A cultural agreement was signed, an economic collaboration agreement, six … seven different agreements that suddenly marked the opening of Romanian-Turkish relations on all levels.”

Relations between Romania and Turkey in the 20th century are the basis of what exists between them today. The two countries go together, as they have done for several hundred years.