Turkey
Erdogan, Putin: a turnaround in record time
The Meeting of the presidents of Russia and Turkey ended the ice age between the two countries, which had triggered the shooting down of a Russian fighter jet. The pace of rapprochement has surprised experts.
The frosty climate between Russia and Turkey took around seven months, the warming is less than six weeks. If the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel on Tuesday to Russia and his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin meets, both will have a 180-degree turn completed. For Erdogan, it’s the end of a corridor to Canossa, or, specifically, in Putin’s hometown Saint Petersburg.
The knee began at the end of June with a letter to Putin. In it, Erdogan expressed regret that the Turkish air force on 24. November 2015, a Russian fighter bomber the Su-24 on the Turkish-Syrian border was shot down, and apologized to the families of the victims.
The shooting, in which two Russian servicemen were killed, cooled the relations between the close partners is unprecedented. Russia responded with a ban on imports of Turkish food, and the stroke of all Charter flights in the holiday country, the millions of Russians popular. In addition, Moscow also put two large projects on hold: the construction of a gas pipeline through the Black sea and a nuclear power plant. As it goes with these projects, now to decide Putin and Erdogan personally.
Russian restraint after the coup
The rapprochement is all the more surprising when you consider how the two sides are still recently together handled. Erdogan had stressed after the Downing of the fighter jet that his country will not tolerate any violations of its borders. In the weeks before Ankara had protested several times against Russian bombers violated Turkish airspace on the border with Syria. In the West, the concern grew ahead of a military conflict between Russia and the NATO member Turkey.
The Russian fighter jet was shot down by the Turkish military in the Turkish-Syrian border area
Putin described the launch as a “stab in the back”. “Allah has decided to punish the ruling Clique in Turkey and has robbed her of the mind”, he shouted, in a speech at the beginning of December 2015. In addition, Moscow accused the Turkish leadership, in oil deals with the terrorist militia “Islamic state” involved. Almost daily, Russian state ranted on television against Erdogan. A well-known right-wing populist proposed in the Parliament to throw an atomic bomb on the Bosphorus, the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul “wash away”.
Is washed away, apparently, since a few weeks, the Russian wrath. Only a few days after his letter to Putin, telephoned Erdogan with the Russian President. They agreed on the personal Meeting that takes place now. In addition, Putin lifted the ban on Charter flights to Turkey. Since the end of July, Russian tourists flock to the Turkish beaches. After the failed coup by the Turkish military, there was another call, this time on the Initiative of Moscow. Putin strengthened Erdogan demonstratively the back.
Ankara meets Moscow’s conditions
Such “somersaults in the Russian-Turkish relations” could even confuse experienced observer, writes the Moscow expert on foreign policy, Fyodor Lukyanov, in a newspaper article. “If necessary, the sharpest words can be forgotten easily,” notes the editor-in-chief of the journal “Russia in global politics”.
Possible this is, among other things, because Turkey had fulfilled in addition to a formal apology, but also two additional conditions of Moscow at least in part, say Russian observers. For example, the shooting down of Russian fighter bombers responsible Turkish military pilots were in custody. In addition, Ankara look would have to be willing to talk about compensation.
To ice gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey: the Black sea
Approach with obstacles
Russian experts believe that the current developments in Turkey, driving the country even more in the direction of Moscow. What is meant is the criticism of the EU, the US and the West in to Erdogan’s circumcision of democracy after the failed coup. Russia could even become a new support for Turkey, says Viktor Nadein-Rajewskij from the Russian Institute for political and social studies of the black sea area and the Caspian Region. “Recently, there was talk of Turkey’s membership in the Shanghai cooperation organization and the Eurasian economic Union,” he told Deutsche Welle. In both organisations, Russia is the driving force.
Nadein-Rajewskij believes that the Russian-Turkish business relations “are relatively quickly” back up. The political rapprochement will, however, be more difficult. “The main problem is Syria,” – said the expert. Turkey wanted a change of government in Damascus, while Russia is the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad support, the military.