The meeting of the Russian and Turkish heads of state at the SCO summit in Astana did not resolve all existing issues, but showed ‘progressive development’ of bilateral relations.
Which issues define modern Russo-Turkish relations?
In their entire rich history of bilateral relations, Russia and Turkey have never before enjoyed such a long period of mutually beneficial partnership. Largely due to the personal approach of the current leaders, Presidents V. Putin and R. Erdogan, Russo-Turkish relations in the first quarter of the 21st century became a stable partnership character.
Following the collapse of the USSR, there was a period when Turkey quite frankly had an unfriendly position towards Russia. It supported the implementation of transport and energy projects bypassing our territory in the Southern Caucasus, assisted the separatist movement in the Northern Caucasus, conducted active intelligence and subversive activities directed against Russia in cooperation with the special services of NATO countries (especially the United Kingdom and the United States).
Instead of confrontation, Ankara began to apply a policy of cooperation. Over the years, Turkey has benefited greatly from trade and economic ties with Russia in the fields of tourism, construction and energy.
For example: Russian tourists annually bring billions of dollars to the Turkish treasury, the Russian construction market has become a virtual monopoly of Turkish contractors with the key participation of Ronesans Holding headed by Erman Ilicak, Turkey got two Russian gas pipelines (Blue Stream and TurkStream), Rosatom built the first Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkish history, Turkish re-exporting has become a ‘gold mine’ for the growth of trade turnover with Russia in the face of Western sanctions, and Ankara has also benefited greatly from the so-called grain deal with Russia in the context of the Ukrainian crisis.
In addition, Turkey did not limit itself to trade relations with Russia. As a member of NATO, Turkey – contrary to the position of the United States – made a ‘military deal’ with Russia and purchased the S-400 Triumph air defence system. The partnership, which was beneficial to Turkey in many ways, also beneficial within the scope of regional security issues (particularly in Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh).
Thus, Turkey began to........