Romanian-Turkish relations in the 20th century
In the 20th century, Romania and Turkiye built a privileged relationship based on tradition
Steliu Lambru, 23.03.2026, 14:00
No other influence was greater in the Romanian regions in the last millennium than the Turkish influence. Since 1877, after Romania had gained its state independence, relations entered a new territory. In the 20th century, Romania and Turkiye built a privileged relationship based on tradition.
Lawyer Radu Boroș, specializing in air law, told the Oral History Center of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting in 1995 how bilateral relations evolved after the First World War.
Radu Boros: “The first thing Kemal 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 Turkiye 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. Therefore, he interrupted the air line that the Franco-Romanian Society had been covering since 1920 on the Paris-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Istanbul route.”
Gradually, both Europeans and Turks understood that they could not move forward separately. And it was the Romanians who opened the way for rapprochement.
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 arose 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 Turkiye. 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 a support, as a reinforcement of our maritime navigation lines. Despite all the efforts made to obtain authorization from Turkiye to build the line to Istanbul, we failed. We received no response, neither negative nor positive, we were always told to wait. In the General Assembly of the Economic Council of the Balkan Entente, in the session of April 1939, towards the end of the meeting, the president of the Turkish delegation, who was 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 remembered the process of normalizing Romanian-Turkish relations, although the two were separated by the barrier of opposing military blocs.
Vasile Sandru: “Romania was the first to break this barrier. As a participating country in the Warsaw Treaty, Romania was the first to take this step of normalizing relations with Greece and Turkiye. As bilateral problems between Romania and these two countries 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 1966 visit of the Romanian Prime Minister was that to open the future cooperation.
Vasile Șandru: ” There was a large delegation, led by Prime Minister Maurer, which was attended by our Foreign Minister, many representatives of the economic ministries. There were deputy ministers from metallurgy, machine building, 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 I found very interesting at the time was that 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 were attending these discussions and I can tell you that they were actually 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 Turkiye 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.”
The 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.
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