Turkmen Terzi
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has gained international recognition for his role in the Ukraine-Russia grain deal. This is a UN-backed agreement that was realised in Istanbul last month after months of effort from the Turkish government and is vital for food security for many Middle Eastern and North African countries.
On the one hand, while he has received praise over this deal, he has also received global condemnation for conducting military operations against Kurdish groups in Syria.
Erdoğan has established a very “special relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has faced international isolation since Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine in February.
The Russian President is willing to establish strong business ties with Türkiye, especially in the areas of trade and energy, but Erdoğan’s close ties with Jihadist groups remain a great security concern for Putin. Consequently, he has still has not given the green light for Erdoğan’s Syria operations.
Both Erdoğan and Putin have been in power for more than two decades. They visit each other frequently, and bilateral relations between Türkiye and Russia have entered a new phase since the early 2000s, with both leaders establishing a close dialogue.
Türkiye’s trade volume with Russia reached a record high of $34.7 billion in 2021. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, a total number of 1972 projects, with a total value of over $75,7 billion, have, thus far, been realised by Turkish contractors in Russia.
Energy is of the foremost of interest between Türkiye and Russia. The TurkStream Project, which has been developed per the Intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Türkiye, runs under 930 km of the Black Sea since January 2020, carrying Russian gas to Europe.
“The Turkish Stream, unlike all other routes of our hydrocarbon supplies, works properly, works smoothly, without any failures. I think our European partners should be grateful to Türkiye for ensuring uninterrupted transit of our gas to the European market,” Putin said in praise of the TurkStream project, according to Russia Today.
Russia’s state-run nuclear energy firm Rosatom is building four reactors worth $20 billion on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast.
The plant is expected to meet up to 10% of Türkiye’s domestic electricity needs.
Russian tourists constitute the majority of tourists visiting Türkiye in recent years, as 7 million Russians visited Türkiye in 2019 and around 4.7 million last year in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
Despite close business ties, Türkiye and Russia have often found themselves supporting opposing sides in many key conflicts.
In Libya, Türkiye supported the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), while Moscow backed General Haftar's Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA).
The Turkish-Russian relationship faced a serious test as a result of the Syrian civil war. Erdogan has become the main supporter of the Syrian rebels and jihadist forces fighting against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, and Türkiye currently controls certain northern Syrian cities and towns as a result of direct military operations.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets shot down a Russian warplane in the Türkiye-Syria border area in November 2015.
Erdoğan then apologised to Putin over the downing of the Russian jet, and this seemed to have strengthened relations between the two leaders.
Another shocking incident to occur was when Mevlut Mert Altıntas, an off-duty Turkish police officer who had closed ties with Erdoğan’s Islamist circle, assassinated the Russian Ambassador to Türkiye, Andrei Karlov on December 19, 2016.
Following several meetings in 2017 and 2018, Türkiye and Russia once again entered a new spring in their relationship.
Türkiye, Russia and Iran launched the trilateral Astana Process mechanism to resolve the decade-old Syrian problem.
In a deal that angered Nato members, Türkiye ordered Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems. Washington has warned its Nato ally Turkey against purchasing new weapons from Russia.
The Ukraine crisis gave Erdogan the upper hand in the relationship between him and Putin as the Western world introduced severe economic sanctions on Russia.
Türkiye did not join the Western sanctions. Instead, welcoming Russian oligarchs, investors, and Russian citizens to settle in Türkiye since the Ukraine War.
Erdoğan and Putin met for the second time in a month in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi after their last meeting in Tehran. They agreed to boost cooperation in the transport, agriculture, finance and construction industries and switch part of the payments for Russian gas to roubles during a four-hour meeting in Sochi on August 5.
“Putin and Erdoğan may discuss the topic of BRICS during their talks in Sochi”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday in Sochi.
Türkiye remains an important strategic and economic partner of Russia, but since Türkiye has become the preferred transit route for jihadists heading to the Middle East and ISIS becoming active in Türkiye since the eruption of the Syrian civil war, Erdoğan increasingly looks like an unreliable partner for Putin.
The Star