BY HASAN KANPOLAT
TODAY'S ZAMAN - Official relations between Turks and Russians stretch back more than 500 years. The shared history between these two peoples has included ups and downs, and wars both hot and cold. Now, however, our ties are undergoing sweeping changes.
The last decade has witnessed very positive changes in relations between Turkey and the Russian Federation. At the same time, we need to understand that Russia is seeing Ankara in a different light as the nature of their relationship changes.
One of the most important dimensions of Turkish-Russian relations is the economic one. It has been little noted that the volume of bilateral trade is in Russia's favor and that Russia is quite dependent on its exports to Turkey of raw energy materials (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.). But aside from this particular economic imbalance, there are some other important points that need consideration. Starting in the 2000s, all traditional perceptions of the Russian Federation in connection with the Cold War came to a complete end as far as Turkey and the Turkish people were concerned. But we can't say the same of the Russian Federation and its people. Turkey, dismissing the importance of the trade imbalance, is energetically intent on pursuing cooperation between the two nations on a number of different fronts. The same sense of desire and intent is not, however, present in Russia. For example, even though an agreement has been signed to eliminate visa requirements between the two nations, the deal will reportedly take years to be implemented. Ankara wants to open a Russian-Turkish university in Turkey. But since Russia doesn't want to see a Russian university under the control of Turks, the subject has been put on hold by Moscow, without having actually been cancelled outright. So why is the Russian Federation acting so sluggish on developing relations with Turkey? Russia is currently under the sway of the Vladimir Putin-Dmitry Medvedev duo and the 21st century Russian elite-St. Petersburg school of thought that is open to pro-Western influence. This pro-Western stance can be clearly seen in the Russian Federation's latest foreign policy document, which declares its first priority to be developing relations with the European Union and the US. It no longer places much importance on its relations with former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan and Ukraine, places that are critically important to the Russian Federation, places where people speak Russian and sizeable Russian minorities still live. The Putin-Medvedev duo's perception of Turkey, also held by the 21st century Russian elite, is stuck somewhere in the 19th century. Turkey is seen as a country to be left behind in the Middle East, and thus ties with it are not seen as particularly important. Add to this perception the elements left over from the Cold War, and the rapid development of relations between Russia and Turkey isn't an idea that gets much support in Moscow. From Russia, there is no real comprehension of the enormous steps forward Turkey has taken in the economic, cultural, legal, political and social arenas over the past decade. As for the Russian Federation, it is stuck in a diseased economic structure dependent on the sale of raw energy materials. It is unable to make the necessary democratic, legal, social and political transformations. It would thus make much more sense for Russia to - rather than look down on Turkey - hold it up as an example of how to transform itself. In the Soviet Union, Turkology was a very well-developed field of study. Two of the most important reasons for this were the hundreds of years of struggle between the Ottoman state and Czarist Russia, as well as, of course, the many ethnic Turkic peoples living within Soviet borders. The fact is, however, that the Russian Federation is no longer turning out the same numbers of academics and intellectuals who are as interested in Turkey, Turkic peoples, and Turkology as before. And those who do exist now are making their own way without the support of either the Russian Federation or Turkey. Among the newer generation of young researchers on this front we can count on people like Dr. Irina Svistunova, Dr. Aleksandr Sotnichenko, Professor Aleksi Pilov, Dr. Aleksandr Pilov, Dr. Apollinaria Avrutina, Aleksandra Jevelava, Dr. Ilyas Kamalov, and Sergey Koritskiy. And so it is that the friendship and relations between Turks and Russians will develop only as a result of the efforts of this younger group and those like them. The time has come for Russian politicians to listen to these young academics and intellectuals, who understand just how far Turkey has come in recent years.