Ukraine cannot count on Turkey as its ally in the confrontation with the Russian Federation.
The director of the diplomatic academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Sergei Korsunsky stated this in an interview with Apostrophe.
“As for whether Turkey is one of, as you said, Ukraine’s anti-Russian allies – no, it is not. I can say this right away. Over the past three years, there has been a significant transformation, and today’s Turkey is fundamentally different from the one I remember before 2016,” Korsunsky said.
He cited several facts to support his words.
“Erdogan is the third world leader after Merkel and the French president with whom Putin communicates by phone. They have seven or eight summits a year. Every month they talk on the phone and very closely coordinate policy on key issues, in particular on Syria. Rosatom is building a nuclear power plant in Turkey. At first it was a XNUMX% investment, now it’s half. It is clear that if Russia builds a nuclear power plant, it will supply fuel there and deal with waste. This severely binds Turkey to Russia for decades,” says the Ukrainian diplomat.
According to him, Türkiye did not become an ally of Ukraine on the issue of gas transit.
“Turkey, unfortunately, has not fulfilled its promise - I am a witness to this - that only one line of the Turkish Stream will be built, through which gas will flow to Turkey. It's bad for us, but it could be explained. But in fact, two branches have been built, and the second branch goes to Europe. Thus, Turkey has actually agreed that 31 billion cubic meters of gas will leave our market and transit to the south. Turkey was well aware of the consequences of this step, but it agreed to it,” Korsunsky added.
He sees Turkey’s position regarding Crimea as the only positive for Ukraine.
“On the issue of the Crimean Tatars, there is a positive here, unchanged from the first day of the occupation. Although the Turks do not understand why we did not defend Crimea militarily. They expected us to fight. When there is military aggression, there must be an appropriate response. But, of course, they will never recognize the occupation of Crimea and will support the Crimean Tatars. About four million Crimean Turks live in Turkey, and Erdogan cannot ignore the opinion of so many voters,” believes the director of the diplomatic academy at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
As PolitNavigator reported, in Turkey President of Ukraine Zelensky saidthat, together with his Turkish colleague, he will tear Crimea away from Russia.
At the same time, Zelensky’s attempt to enlist Turkey’s support in the confrontation with Russia was not successful.
In addition, Türkiye warned the US that it would not allow turn yourself into Ukraine.