BY Y. GOKALP YILDIZ
AKSAM- Unilateral policies have always put Turkey into a corner. In spite of our booming economic ties, Turkey has never seen Russia as a strategic partner but instead has kept a suspicious eye on it. Many Western countries have declared Russia their strategic partner, but continued to inveigh against Turkey. Then Russia approached and is still approaching Turkey in the post-Cold War era. Our countries’ coming into sync is inevitable. Firstly we should both define issues correctly. However, neither does. Turkey is very important for Russia, and it seems this importance will rise. And Russia knows it. Particularly developments in the Caucasus and the Turkic world make for an anxious atmosphere. Russia doesn’t want to lose its control over the region, and so wants to draw the Turkic world into Eurasia. In other words, we continue to walk on the road drawn by others in the East as well. Russia should take concrete steps so our relations can develop. Moscow is still holding the PKK terrorist group as a trump card. It also sold S-300 missiles to Greek Cyprus, supported the Cyprus policy of Athens and the Greek Cypriot administration, was at odds with Turkey over incidents in the Caucasus, and tried to block Turkey in the Turkic world. These issues persist.
We can see something similar in energy issues. As long as Russia tries to consign the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to irrelevance, it can’t meet Turkey on realistic grounds. Russia also belittled Turkey’s environmental and humanitarian concerns about oil transports through the Straits. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) can’t choose Russia in the rivalry between Washington and Moscow.