Iran in the Military-Political Situation of the Near and Middle East on the Eve and During the Great Patriotic War
The outbreak of the Second World War and the direct preparation of fascist Germany for an attack on the Soviet Union to the limit aggravated the military-political situation in the Middle East region. This was expressed in the increasingly noticeable crystallization of liberation ideals, the growing struggle for the independence of peoples under foreign oppression. In many countries of the Near and Middle East, a democratic, anti-fascist movement was spreading. So, in response to the actions of the “Vichy government” after the surrender in July 1940. France, which put the territory of Syria under the control of the German-Italian authorities, began anti-fascist demonstrations. The anti-fascist movement was also growing in Iraq. Iraq provided the British military command with the opportunity to use the country’s territory to deploy its military units, as well as the infrastructure for the transit of military equipment and food, mainly to Iran for the needs of allied forces. Saudi Arabia has provided an opportunity for the United States, as an ally in the anti-Hitler coalition, to build the largest military air base in the Middle East in Dhahran. The military-political situation in Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, neighboring with the Soviet Union, developed especially intensively. These countries occupied an important place in the strategic plans of the Hitlerite command. As a result of the active and large-scale agent activity of fascist Germany in Turkey, the Turkish-German pact “On Friendship and Non-aggression” was signed, which secured the Balkan flank of the fascist troops and was the last link in the preparation of the war against the USSR. For Turkey, it meant openly joining the anti-Soviet policy of fascist Germany.