April 11, 1959
BULGARIA-TURKEY-NATO: Frankfurt, 9 – The official Czechoslovak news agency reported from Sofia today that the Bulgarian government had submitted an official protest to Ankara over Turkey’s new accord with the United States, which it said was a hostile act against Bulgaria and a threat to peace in the Balkans and the world. The Bulgarians say that Turkey’s membership in NATO and the Baghdad Treaty involved it in dangerous military preparations and obliged it to undertake additional military commitments. Bulgaria said that military bases and missile bases were already on Turkish territory near its borders with Bulgaria and other peaceful nations and that the Turkish army was being supplied with weapons of mass destruction, providing the USA with the right to intervene militarily on territory thousands of miles from the American coasts. The undoubtedly hostile nature of these preparations, it added, and the recently signed military agreement, complicated the situation in the Balkans and regions of the Near and Middle East. Bulgaria, added the statement, wants to contribute to a summit meeting of Balkan nations to seek ways to improve relations among them.
