Zavtra.com.ua: Turkey might activate its relations with Russia in retaliation to US
Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 8:17PM Great, Dugin's dreams may become reality. The relationship of Turkey with the West was not viable for some time [read: here].The West would not support Turkey's interests in Northern Cyprus, the West created a de facto Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, will then the issue of Armenian genocide, now discussed in US Congress, be the last straw that breaks the camel's back? I never thought I would be translating a contribution to my Turkishness series from a Ukrainian (Russian language) source. Well, here is the original and here comes my translation...
As answer to US, in case the US Congress passes the resolution recognising Armenian genocide, Turkey prepared a plan of retaliatory measures in the political, strategic, economic and military-technological spheres which in turn suggests a more active cooperation with Russia.
As Newsru.com, with a reference to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, reports that the plans prepared by Ankara in the political sphere look at possible cancellation of Minister of State Zafer Çağlayan's and also participation of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan in the upcoming summit focusing on nuclear security, scheduled for 11-14 April. These questions are expected to be discussed on Monday 8 March.
In the economic sphere, Turkey might in reaction to passing of the resolution by Congress, will reconsider cooperation with the US in importing aviation technology, machinery, chemical and food industry production and agriculture.
In the strategic sphere 'Turkey will continue the process of rapprochement with Russia' 'Ministry of Foreign affairs and the Ministry for Energy together analysed the alternatives in energy policy. Opening the doors to new cooperation with Russia in the sphere of energy, Ankara invites Russia to increase its influence on Yerevan,' Sabah writes.
Counter-reassures in the military-technological spheres are planned for the last phase - depending on how the process of passing the resolution in congress will go. The Turks are not thinking of pulling their troops out of Afghanistan or cutting off support for US, but are thinking of reconsidering common military projects and limiting the use of its airspace by US Air force and the use of Turkish bases by NATO.
To prevent the resolution about Armenian genocide from being passed, Turkey turned to the leading military-technological partners, Boeing, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin to lobby among American congressmen.
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Interesting, as far as I know Russia acknowledges the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire against its Christian subjects in its latter days. I also think that the issue needs to be resolved between Armenians and Turks, and preferably this debate should be between professional historians, and as much away from politics as possible. Russia as a mediator would be just as effective as the US is in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Anyway the resolution was passed and Turkey called off its ambasador. Hillary is on a damage control mission. I still wonder, why the Turks make so much noise, I think it is just the resolution on a now almost century old event but other problems that had gathered up more recently that are at play here.
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Reader Comments (4)
Interesting stuff. In some regards you could say that Turkey and Russia are non-identical twins: neither European nor Asian, neither open societies nor closed, liberal or tyrannical.
In other regards they are polar opposite: Secular/ Christian v increasingly Islamic, Freezing North v Arid South. Demographically Russia is struggling in its birthrate yet has an educated population; Turkey has a relatively high birth rate but a poorly educated population. Turkey has a well-distributed population whilst Russia is sparsely populated east of Kazan.
Something I find interesting is that they both face the paradoxical situation that they self-destructed when they’d reached their cultural zeniths, in the early 20th centuries. I think every country needs a national myth, yet these countries are caught between nostalgia and recent history.
I’d say that Turkey has fairly clever politicians who probably realise that their country is heading to become a Sunni theocracy given the current demographic trends. Given the state of the Sunni world, this is probably something the ruling elite would want to avoid.
Of course, they have a large minority of Alevis (which I have heard some think is influenced by Christianity). I wonder, hypothetically, if this faith will be given support from the government as a form of Turkish identity?
As for whether it would be in their interests to form a closer relationship and to bring about a Eurasian Union, I am as yet uncertain. I think American Imperialism is on the wane: as can be seen by their failure to prevent Russian influence in The Ukraine.
I don't think there can ever be a solid alliance between Russia and Turkey. They simply have too many potential clashes of interests (the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, and Central Asia), which will become increasingly evident as both nations become more powerful. After all, the Russian and Ottoman Empires were very frequently at war with each other.
IMO, what is more likely are temporary marriages of interest, such as what we have now. Turkey might be interested in this to enable it to free up resources for increasing its influence over Iraq and Syria; Russia will be interested in them to free up resources for its own geopolitical projects.
PS. Speaking of Dugin himself, he wanted the Russo-Turkish alliance to be temporary, until Russia built up the strength to directly dominate it (Foundations of Geopolitics).
Thanks for your comments guys.
I'd say that similarities between Turkey and Russia are of superficial nature, however they are nice to contemplate. I personally love finding words of Turkic origin in Russian.
And yes, any alliance would be temporary but good relations might be long-term. After all Turkey and Russia are not immediate neighbors as were the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
@Leos
I meant that the similarities exist in the paradigm of antithesis (wish I could phrase that in a less pompous way ;-)
Stil, I am curious about the concept of 'unions'; millions of Africans have been killed in local wars but there is an African Union. Latin American nations are often at each others throats but there is a South American Union. But maybe a Eurasian Union would be unlikely given the demographic differences (Secular/Orthodox/Sunni/Shia).