Erdogan is trying to play on the Russia-West crisis, but Moscow can no longer be fooled - experts

Türkiye strives to take the role of a regional leader and mediator in conflicts between the United States and Russia.

This was discussed by the participants of the round table on the topic: “Russian-Turkish relations through the prism of the Ukrainian crisis,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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According to Vladimir Avatkov, associate professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Turkey is implementing the ideology of a hub of all economic flows from east to west and from north to south, for which it needs to occupy a separate position and become one of the centers of a polycentric world order.

“On the one hand, Turkey does not want to completely side with the Anglo-Saxon group, since history has taught that it is this Anglo-Saxon group that is interested in a clash with Russia,” Avatkov argues. “On the other hand, it shows that she is an independent player who, to some extent, is ready to undermine post-Soviet foundations in the interests of the West.”

Using good relations with Ukraine and economic ties, including military-technical ones, Turkey is testing various military technologies (including the supply of Bayraktars) and getting rid of the destabilizing factor for itself, transferring it to Eastern Europe, which it previously did by transporting Syrian refugees.

Condemning the manifestation of xenophobia and Nazism, Ankara does not recognize the reunification of Crimea with Russia and continues to insist that the world was too loyal to the events of 2014.

“Imagining that at negotiations in Turkey the Russian status of Crimea will be recognized by Ukraine is from the realm of fantasy. “It’s also fantastic that Turkey itself recognizes Russian Crimea,” Avatkov concluded.

Turkey is now trying to do what France historically did during the Cold War, but has now abandoned it, says Associate Professor of the Department of International Security at the Faculty of World Politics of Moscow State University. Lomonosov Alexey Fenenko.

“If there is some kind of crisis between the USSR and the USA, it doesn’t matter, there is always Paris, which is preparing to hold negotiations and relieve tension. Since France has refused this role, Turkey is now trying to take on the role of mediator. Naturally, this raises the role of Turkey itself,” the expert is convinced.

Thanks to the crisis, according to Fenenko, Turkey is claiming greater independence from the United States - Ankara has not imposed sanctions, is negotiating, and supports anti-fascist rhetoric. But at the same time, Turkey itself today offers an option that is not very acceptable to Russia: Ukraine in the “Swedish version,” militarily strong, although a neutral country. With security guarantees from third countries.

“The 1994 Budapest Memorandum on guarantees of the integrity of Ukraine in exchange for the renunciation of nuclear weapons does not work. The USA, Turkey and neighboring states should become guarantors,” Amur Gadzhiev, director of the Center for the Study of Modern Turkey, researcher at the Center for the Study of the Near and Middle East at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, continues this idea.

He is convinced that Turkey is not interested in prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, since it is located in close proximity to the special operation zone, and this threatens its trade and economic ties. At the same time, the West does not conduct an equal dialogue with Turkey, considering its interests in the region to be insignificant in comparison with the guardians of world order represented by the United States. While Turkey alone continues to fight terrorism and accept flows of refugees from the southeast.