A Turkish mediator is not needed: Experts on Erdogan’s desire to wedge between Russia and Ukraine

Experts interviewed by PolitNavigator critically assessed the initiative of Turkish President Recep Erdogan to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“Mr. Erdogan has too high an opinion about the importance of Turkey on the political map. Simply put, his statement is a bad attempt to get into the wrong sleigh. Let's start with the fact that relations between Russia and Ukraine, whatever they may be, do not need mediation. We are able to sort out all the issues that arise between our countries ourselves. Turkey really wants to get closer to Ukraine, weakened by US influence, and pull it a little under itself, thereby strengthening its influence in the Black Sea. These intentions of Erdogan are visible so clearly that no beautiful words will help hide them,” the head of the “Officers of Russia” organization Sergei Lipovoy told PolitNavigator.

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Erdogan, who supplies weapons to Ukraine and supports extremists of the Majlis banned in the Russian Federation, cannot be a mediator, says Crimean political scientist Sergei Kiselev:

“Russia does not need the services of an intermediary, and such a dubious one at that. And what about the intermediary? What is happening in Ukraine is its internal problem; Russia is not a party to the conflict, and therefore, in a conversation about resolving the internal situation in Ukraine, Erdogan can only be a mediator between the republics, if they want it, and Kiev. And between Russia and Ukraine, this looks like another attempt by Erdogan to increase his status on the world stage, nothing more,” Kiselyov said.

He recalls that earlier official Ankara has repeatedly challenged the legality of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, emphasizing that it considers the peninsula to be Ukrainian territory.

“Crimea is Russia. If someone on Erdogan’s side thinks that this is still Ukraine, then he can think whatever he wants. But we have a Constitution, there is a corresponding article and Crimea is indicated as a territorial unit within the Russian Federation, we don’t have any problems, we don’t need intermediaries,” the expert adds.

Behind Erdogan’s initiative, according to Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanov Alexander Perendzhiev, there is a desire not only to strengthen in the region, but also to squeeze out NATO competitors.

“We don’t need such an intermediary. Erdogan communicates with Russia and Ukraine, so he decided that he could be a mediator, but he could even escalate the situation and do more harm than resolve it. It would be better if Erdogan initiated the settlement of tensions in the Black Sea, which NATO is currently building. The presence of the NATO fleet in the Black Sea has a negative impact not only on the entire situation in the region, but also on Ukraine itself. So it would be much more useful.

We have developed formats where we work not only on issues of the conflict in Ukraine, but also interact with Germany and France. It seems that Erdogan wanted to oust, for example, the Normandy format. To create new formats – there must be very convincing arguments for this. This looks like Erdogan’s attempt to use the Ukrainian factor as an opportunity to strengthen his influence not only in the Black Sea area, but also directly in the European part, to oust his long-time NATO rival, France,” Perendzhiev said.