Turkey andZimbabwe generally had friendly relations until 1990. Turkey did not recognizeRhodesian Front-ledUDI ofRhodesia because of the lack of racial accommodation in theRhodesian Front.[2] In Rhodesia — the approximately 5% white community had a system similar toJim Crow[3] that sustained racial discrimination.[2] AfterIan Smith asPrime Minister of Rhodesia declaredRhodesian independence on November 11, 1965, Turkey joined theBritish to exert pressure onIan Smith’s government through economic sanctions.[4] When the economic sanctions largely failed, the black population of Rhodesia began to organize and were assisted byMozambique’sFrente de Libertação de Moçambique that allowedZANU’s guerrillas to set up bases in neighboringMozambique and declared war on Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, which allowed for majority-rule inZimbabwe.[4]
By 1992, Turkey provided £47 million[5] out of the £900 million in total that the international community pledged as foreign aid to the government formed byRobert Mugabe, who initially won plaudits for protecting the white community inZimbabwe.[4]
Turkey’s relations with Zimbabwe became very tense[6] when Robert Mugabe’s government started confiscating[5] white-owned farms without compensation and later orderedOperation Murambatsvina (chiShona: “cleaning up the shit”) to attack theShona people who lived in the shantytowns aroundHarare, bulldozing 100,000 homes.[6] This led to, according toUN estimates, the death of 1.2 million people.[6]
^abLake, Anthony. The Tar Baby Option: American Policy toward Southern Rhodesia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
^Gifford, Paul. “American Evangelicalism in Zimbabwe.” In Jan P. Nederveen Pietersee, ed. Christianity and Hegemony: Religion and Politics on the Frontiers of Social Change. New York: Berg, 1992.
^abcHorne, Gerald. From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War Against Zimbabwe, 1965–1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
^abStedman, Stephen Jay. Peacemaking in Civil War: International Mediation in Zimbabwe. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1991.
^abcDeRoche, Andrew. Black, White, and Chrome: The United States and Zimbabwe, 1953 to 1998. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World, 2001.
DeRoche, Andrew. Black, White, and Chrome: The United States and Zimbabwe, 1953 to 1998. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World, 2001.
Gifford, Paul. “American Evangelicalism in Zimbabwe.” In Jan P. Nederveen Pietersee, ed. Christianity and Hegemony: Religion and Politics on the Frontiers of Social Change. New York: Berg, 1992.
Horne, Gerald. From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War Against Zimbabwe, 1965–1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Lake, Anthony. The Tar Baby Option: American Policy toward Southern Rhodesia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Stedman, Stephen Jay. Peacemaking in Civil War: International Mediation in Zimbabwe. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1991.
Thompson, Carol B. Challenge to Imperialism: The Frontline States in the Liberation of Zimbabwe. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1986.
