The beginning of the military-political confrontation in the middle of the 20th century gave a new impetus to the formation of multilateral diplomatic relations in the Middle East region, resulting in the form of the Baghdad Pact in the autumn of 1955. The agreement concluded between the countries of Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and the United Kingdom was intended to close the series of military-political coalitions around the Soviet Union and the territories adjacent to it.
What is the Baghdad Pact?
The organization of political blocs has always been determined by the level of importance of a region in the international politics of the leading Western powers. The author of the idea that led to the creation of a new political union in the Near and Middle East was the United States. Secretary of State of the White House D.F. Dulles, after his “familiarization” visit to the oil region in May 1953, put forward a proposal to concentrate on establishing a coalition of states where the treaty between Pakistan and Turkey would serve as the basis. Subsequently, the entire system of subsequent agreements led to the creation of an organization whose structure began to primarily reflect the structure of NATO.
The Baghdad Pact is an aggressive military organization in the Middle East region represented by the states of Iraq (until March 1959), Turkey, Great Britain, Iran and Pakistan. The laconic name of the pact was taken at the place of signing the contract - Baghdad, in it the leadership of this organization was located until mid-summer 1958. The officially established name of the bloc - the Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO) - existed from February 1955 to August 1959. It should be added that the United States, being not a member of the Baghdad Pact, has actively had a hand in the work of its central committees since March 1957.
Pact Creation Prerequisites
Relations between the countries of the Western world and the Middle East region were previously built on a bilateral basis, but the beginning of the Cold War period brought its own corrections. The United States and Great Britain were encouraged to develop multilateral diplomacy by the task of creating a kind of political cooperation with the states of the region adjacent to the southern borders of the Soviet Union. The planned block in the territories of the Near and Middle East was seen by American and British politicians as protecting the southern border of NATO and the cordon from the geopolitical direction of the USSR towards non-freezing seas. It was planned that the Baghdad Pact is the very final link that can close the chain of military-political alliances around the Soviet Union and the territories adjacent to it. Undoubtedly, the war in Korea 1950–1953 also influenced bloc politics.
Another event that brought closer the organization of a multilateral coalition in the Near and Middle East was the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in 1951, which renewed the tightening of control of Western countries in oil-bearing regions. Thus, a threat to the political and economic interests of the leading powers was seen not only in the expansion of Soviet influence, but also in the activation of nationalist sentiments.
Pact formation
The history of the Baghdad Pact began on February 24, 1955, when Turkey and Iraq, having reached an agreement, concluded an agreement on mutual cooperation for the purpose of joint organization of security and defense. This agreement was open to all states of the region recognized by both allies. In April of the same year, a treaty was signed in Baghdad between Great Britain and Iraq, which approved the inclusion of foggy Albion in this agreement. A few months later, Pakistan (September 23) and Iran (November 3) joined it. A constituent meeting of the pact with the joint participation of the heads of government of Great Britain and the Middle East (Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Iran), as well as as the world observer of the US delegation, was held in Baghdad on November 21-22. The meeting resulted in the signing of a treaty that went down in history under the general name “Baghdad Pact”.
It is worth noting that the entire stage of the formation of the pact took place against the backdrop of a confrontation between the United States and England for control of this bloc. The loss of high positions of the latter, which occurred as a result of a failed mission in Egypt in 1956, led to the fact that since January 1957, the leading role in the Middle East region has actually passed to the United States. France was eliminated from participating in the agreement because it lost its main position in this zone as early as 1946 (the withdrawal of the French armed forces from the Syrian and Lebanese republics), as well as due to imperialist differences with the organizers of the pact.
Goals of the pact
The Western powers sought to outwardly give the Baghdad Pact a peaceful and secure character. They managed to mislead the population of the states party to the agreement and disorient the world community regarding the true intentions of this aggressive bloc. The real goals pursued by the imperialists of the West in the formation of this agreement are:
- an increase in the struggle against world socialism;
- pacification of national liberation movements and any progressive acts in the Near and Middle East;
- the exploitation of the state territories of the pact participants under military strategic bases against the USSR and other states of the socialist camp.
All members of the bloc pursued only their purely local interests. For Iran, it was a priority to maintain friendly relations with Britain and the United States in order to modernize the country's economy. Turkey tried on the role of a mediator between the West and the East, thus believing to have dividends on both sides. Pakistan needed the support of its Western allies to compete successfully with India. The motives for Iraq joining this bloc were expressed slightly weaker, which subsequently led to its withdrawal from the Baghdad Treaty.
Iraq exit and CENTO education
In July 1958, a coup d'etat occurred in Iraq that overthrew the monarchical rule of King Faisal II. The newly-minted government did not keep silent about its intention to leave the Baghdad Agreement, immediately sealing its headquarters in the Iraqi capital and not taking part in the next meeting of representatives of the Middle East Union in London on July 28-29. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of Iraq did not pose any threat to the interests of the leading NATO states. Compared with Turkey and Iran, it did not have a common border with the Soviet Union, so its elimination did not have a major impact on the intended strategy of Great Britain and the United States in this region.
To prevent the collapse of the military-political bloc, the White House signed in March 1959 bilateral agreements with the remaining participants - Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, after which all further activities between the states began to be regulated exclusively by these agreements. At the next meeting in Ankara on August 21, 1959, a decision was made to rename the Baghdad Pact to the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), thus determining the geographical location of this organization between NATO and CENTO blocs. CENTO headquarters moved from Baghdad to Ankara.
Block decay
In the 1960s and 1970s, the activities of the successor to the Baghdad Pact gradually waned. One of the last significant blows to the block was inflicted by Turkey in 1974, when it invaded Cyprus and occupied the northern part of the island. Despite the fact that the Turkish offensive had a certain justification, it was negatively regarded by the participants of CENTO, who were in good relations with Greece. After these events, the existence of the bloc began to bear a purely formal character.
The Islamic revolution and the new political system led Iran to withdraw from CENTO in March 1979, and Pakistan almost immediately followed. As a result, only NATO countries began to represent the bloc. The Turkish authorities made a proposal to abolish the activities of CENTO due to the fact that the organization in reality has lost its significance. In August 1979, the Middle East bloc officially ceased to exist.
Conclusion
The creation and dissolution of the Baghdad Pact (hereinafter referred to as CENTO) demonstrated the lack of a solid cementing foundation for this organization. Given the common goal of mutual cooperation in the field of security and defense, participants differently identified the priority areas of its activities. All that actually united the Muslim members of the agreement was the expectation of receiving large-scale military and economic assistance from strong "friends."
The organization until its last days remained an amorphous military-political bloc, where the main reasons for the disability are not so much the multidirectional policies of the countries of the pact and the weak interstate cooperation of Muslim participants, but the serious miscalculations of its Western creators.