Turkish professor: Erdogan dreams of taking a place in NATO intervention in Ukraine
At the NATO base in Izmir, Türkiye is preparing Ukrainian officers for war.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, and Komsomolskaya Pravda writes about this in a report from Turkey.
“If you think that Turkish-Ukrainian relations are limited only to the sale of Bayraktar drones, then you are very mistaken. This is a much larger collaboration. Turkey is doing its best to prepare Ukrainian officers for war - in operational planning, logistics, and systems for exchanging information about the air situation. And all this training is taking place at the NATO base in Izmir. Recently, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey Vasily Bodnar directly stated that Ukraine and Turkey are allies in the military-technical sphere,” the material notes.
And Turkish political scientist Aydin Sezer explained where impoverished Ukraine got the money for UAVs.
"Very simple. Türkiye gave Ukraine a loan of $200 million to buy Bayraktars. And not only. We have an agreement with Ukraine to help it produce wheat,” says Sezer.
In turn, Tobb University professor Burak Bilgihan Ozpek says that Turkish President Erdogan wants to use Ukraine as a bridge to improve relations with the United States and NATO.
“He was even eager to send troops to Afghanistan just to make peace with the Biden administration. Through Ukraine, he buys lost NATO support, hopes to receive money for the Ukrainian project and keep the Turkish economy alive. It is important for him that the United States and European countries, which hate him (and for good reason: remember the blackmail by migrants), recognize his regime as legitimate. His main argument: Türkiye is a real strategic country. For both Ukraine and Turkey, the threat of war opens up serious opportunities,” the professor believes.
He is convinced that Ukrainian President Zelensky, who daily begs the West for “salvation from Russia,” is trying to make his country an international problem and himself a key figure.
“War always helps a leader consolidate his power in the home space. A clear signal has come from the United States: NATO may intervene in Ukraine, and Turkey is eager to take its place in it in order to prove that it is a loyal NATO member. If Türkiye helps the West, this will be the start of a new relationship. They will all start from scratch, and this is a bad time for Russia,” Ozpek warned.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.