Turkey’s in the Russia-Ukraine War: Ukraine war turkeys (Recently Turkey has changed its name) has been brought into limelight from geopolitical point of view. Turkey, one of NATO’s earliest member states, also has good relations with Russia and is balancing its competing interests and increasing its influence. Meanwhile, Turkey is stuck in the middle of starting a military operation in Syria. Which is a challenge for its relations with Russia and America.
Apart from this, this campaign will also worry the United Nations in terms of ‘increasing military tension’. In October, Turkey launched an operation targeting Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq and is currently threatening ground strikes in Kurdish areas of Syria.
Russia is the main ally of the Syrian government, while the US is supporting Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Both Russia and America are in opposing camps regarding the ongoing conflict in Syria. Recent reports suggest Russian officials are involved in brokering a deal between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces, while the US is concerned about a possible Turkish ground campaign that would disrupt its anti-ISIS campaign in Syria.
Turkey’s president presents himself as a peace ambassador
News Reels
What can Turkey’s history tell us about its current role as a balancing point between Western powers and Russia? For more than 100 years, Turkish leaders have pivoted between relations with the West and Russia in order to gain greater economic, geopolitical and social power. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented himself as a strong leader and peace ambassador between the two sides. History tells us why Turkey is in a position to do so?
brotherhood and friendship
In March 1921, Turkish nationalists and Russian Bolsheviks made an agreement of ‘Brotherhood and Friendship’ in Moscow. Earlier, Turkish ruler Kemal Ataturk and Russian leader Lenin had also shown solidarity against the western imperialist forces. This agreement was made when the war between Greece and Turkey was going on in Anatolia and the civil war in Russia was increasing.
Lenil had declared, “The Turks themselves protested against the plunder of the imperialist governments. That too with such a firmness that even the most powerful had to pull out.” In this way, Ataturk also saw this alliance as a pact against Western imperialism.
Historian Sam Hurst states that this was part of a wider cross-border anti-imperialist movement, marking Russian commitment to support the global anti-colonial struggle. In return, the Turkish nationalists received material support from the new Russian government during the national independence struggle. After the establishment of the independent Turkish country, the relations between Russia and Turkey changed in the year 1923 and now the direction of both the countries has become more practical.
But after the Second World War, the Russian demand for the internationally important Dardanelles and the Bosphorus Strait region and its status pushed Turkey to the side of the newly formed NATO. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin famously said that the Russian demand was to build a military base in the Dardanelles. Because it was a question of protecting the security of Russia. And Russia does not depend on a weak and unfriendly country (Turkey). There were talks about the middle of the strait which controls the movement between the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, but in the end Russia accepted the position.
By the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, a new era of diplomatic agreements began. Despite this, there was a dispute with Russia regarding Turkey’s policy towards the ‘rational’ state that broke away from the Soviet Union. However, between 1992 and 1996, Russian and Turkish officials signed 15 bilateral agreements. The Black Sea became the focal point of bilateral economic cooperation between the two countries.
what is the kurdish case
The dawn of the new millennium saw the outbreak of war in Iraq and the emergence of the Iraqi Kurds as a regional force, further complicating Turkey’s relations with the United States. America supported the Kurdish people against the regime of Saddam Hussein. On the contrary, Turkey’s relations with Russia deepened through trade, energy, regional security and cooperation.
Russia played an important role in redefining Turkey’s policy towards the European Union, Asia and Central Asia after the promise of inclusion in the European Union was not fulfilled. Both Putin and Erdoğan have cashed in on resentment against the West. But with Syria turning into a proxy war zone on the Turkish border, large numbers of Kurds began demanding autonomy and an independent state, leading to new tensions.
Due to the war, a large number of refugees reached Turkey. Meanwhile, in 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian plane carrying military personnel to Syria over its airspace, leading to a standstill in relations between the two countries. In response, Russia took several economic steps against its second largest trade partner.
However, largely due to Turkish efforts, the duration of this crisis was very short. Despite this, President Erdoğan did not refrain from criticizing Russia for the attack on Crimea. But experts believe that today the relations between Turkey and Russia are not based on trust, mutual understanding or mutual interest, rather it is based on the understanding that if Russia wants, it can do a lot of damage to Turkey.
At the moment, Erdoğan is trying to find a difficult balance between fulfilling Turkey’s commitment to NATO on the one hand and maintaining its alliance with Russia on the other. Erdoğan is presenting himself as the only leader who can seal diplomatic deals and pave the way for talks between Americans and Russians.
read this also: Russia-Ukraine War: ‘India should mediate to end Russia-Ukraine war’, members said in parliamentary committee meeting