After the message sent by the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Aravot” asked several questions to Turkologist Hayk Darbinyan on this matter.
– Mr. Darbinyan, was the Turks initiative to mend Turkish-Russian ties unexpected?
– After the event of November 24, 2015, when the Turkish fighter jet downed Russian СУ-24, the relations between the two countries sharply strained, after which the speeches made by Russian and Turkish top officials showed that the problem has become fundamental not only for Russia and Turkey but also Erdoğan and Putin in person, and note that none of them wants to make concessions, both in domestic and foreign policy. The initiative by the Turkish side, however, was not unexpected. Over time, the unfavorable developments in the domestic political and foreign front of Turkey made Erdoğan make concessions on this issue.
The improvement process of the relations began with the congratulatory letters of Erdoğan and Binali Yıldırım on the Russia Day addressed to their Russian counterparts: Putin and Medvedev. After that, Turkey published a road map consisted of 9 clauses, which suggests regulating the Russian-Turkish relations by the end of this year. Now, Erdoğan message was published, in which he apologized to Russians for the incidents happened in November 2015.
Read also
– Were Moscow’s official responses adequate to Turkey’s initiatives, which were aimed at the attempts of improving the relations?
– After the downing of the aircraft, Russians have repeatedly announced that for the normalization of the relations between the two countries it is a priority that Turkey apologizes for the occurrence. Until the message on “apologizing”, Russia was not taking Turkish initiatives serious, and on every opportune, it was reminding that Turkey must regret what it did. This position continued until this long-awaited apology was voiced.
– Is it so difficult to apologize, and whether it needed to wait for more than half a year?
– It is naïve to think that Erdoğan and Turkey eventually regretted what they did and apologized. Obviously, the order for downing the aircraft was given by senior officials of Turkey, or all of that was carried out by their direct awareness. Erdoğan took this step by taking into account two factors: Firstly, enormous economic losses that Turkey suffers due to strained relations with Russia. Secondly, the recent noticeable crisis in the Turkey-EU relations. Turkey is disappointed with the EU and clearly realizes that Europe is not ready to cooperate with Turkey.
As a result, Erdoğan turns to the west and the Islamic world. The normalization of ties between Russia and Israel pursue a goal to ensure the fulfillment of these intentions. Incidentally, the German Bundestag decision on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as of June 2, 2016, also played a great role in the disappointment with Europe… It turns out that the decision on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to some extent contributed to the possible normalization of Russian-Turkish relations. It is also wrong to think that Russia and Turkey would become friends with the possible normalization of the relations. The roots of competition, tensions and occasional clashes between these countries go back to the history. The overt or hidden tension between the Turks and Russians is available in the two countries’ both warm and tense relations.
– Where is the Republic of Armenia in all these processes? Will the possible normalization of Russian-Turkish relations affect the Armenia-Turkey relations?
– The relations with the Republic of Armenia are perceived in a completely different context in Turkey. The government of this country is not ready to commence a dialogue with Armenia, they often reason this indecisiveness by Artsakh conflict. I am confident that the solution to the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations depends only on these two countries, and in the presence of adequate will, the parties can reach an agreement while in the case of its absence, they can bring at least 100 reasons of why they cannot normalize the Armenian-Turkish relations. Today, the most suitable reasoning is the Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict.