The logic and dynamics of Turkey’s current foreign policy continue to place Erdogan in the middle of a minefield,... ... all to see five years ago following the downing of the Russian Su-24 on the Turkey–Syria border. For a moment, it looked like Russia and Turkey were about to go to war... ... crisis in Russia–Turkey relations.
Expansion of military-technical cooperation with Ukraine
. Russia and Turkey have always had fundamentally different views on Ukraine...
... eastern Ukrainian autonomists could agree? What would be the conditions needed for both sides to accept peacekeepers, if a settlement can be reached?
Southern Caucasus
A Roadmap for U.S.-Russia Relations. Executive Summary of the CSIS and RIAC Report
Can Turkey now help mediate between the U.S., Europeans and Russia over the disputes in the Caucasus and Black Sea, as well as in Syria? How should the U.S., EU and Russia respond to Ankara’s new turn toward authoritarianism?
What if NATO also dropped efforts to draw Georgia, in addition to Ukraine, into NATO membership? Could the 2008 Turkish proposal for a “Caucasian Stability and Cooperation Platform” be revived for the Caucasus and the entire Black Sea region — if the questions of the Russian annexation of Crimea and issues surrounding ...
... against itself.
This is part of a larger Russian war against the West that is becoming increasingly brazen: until this year, Syria and Ukraine were the most glaring centerpieces in Russia’s disinformation campaigns; then, Russian disinformation caused a faux ... ... favorable to its interests significantly increased in places like Germany and Austria. Furthermore, U.S. and NATO “ally” Turkey has taken a decidedly sharp anti-democratic and anti-Western plunge and is clearly cozying up to Russia.
2017 may be ...
... group Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant), the war in Syria and Iraq, the migrant crisis, slow growth. But these are issues civilised nations... ... to focus on Eurasia. In 2014, Russia embarked on a power struggle with the West over Ukraine.
This is bad news for dealing with threats such as terrorism, which need the... ... enemies, or vice versa.
The Turkish trap
With this background, we can better understand Turkey’s warming relations with Russia. Turkey is not the West. It’s not...
... a neo-Kemalist foreign policy that focuses on national interests and respects the territorial integrity of Turkey’s neighbors.
There is no surprise that beside other issues the parties concentrated on discussing Syria. In geopolitical terms, Syria is a top priority for Turkey, just as Ukraine is of central interest to Russia. Russian decision, in late September 2015, to intervene in Syria had caused huge problems between Ankara and Moscow. After Russian SU-24 had been shot down by Turkish Air Forces, bilateral relations further deteriorated....