Expert: Turkey defends its interests in the Middle East

Turkey defends its interests in the Middle East, a senior research officer of the Center for Arab Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Boris Dolgov. 

"The Turks are clearly supporting an anti-Assad position in Syria. Ankara supports Islamist groups and the Free Syrian Army, which is fighting against the leadership of Bashar al-Assad. The country is covertly supporting militants of Islamic State (IS). Turkey continues to believe that Assad is an illegitimate president and he must go. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made such a statement at the beginning of the Syrian crisis. So in this respect, the Turkish position hasn’t changed," he said. 

The current leadership of Turkey supports those forces that are fighting the Syrian government. They wosh to create a 100-km no-fly zone near the Turkish border with Syria, which would be under their control. In fact, it is the invasion of a sovereign state. NATO countries support Turkey in this matter. Anyway, they supported the protest against the Turkish terrorist acts that have been committed in this country. But the terrorist attacks were organized by representatives of Islamic State, and the Turkish army bombed the positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party. This confirms once again that Turkey has its own interests in the region,’’ the scientist said. 

Speaking about Iran's changing relations with neighboring countries and Russia after the conclusion of the agreement on its atomic program, the expert expressed the view that they are unlikely to undergo changes.  

"First, we shouldn’t place hope in the agreement of the "six negotiators’’ and Iran. It is just on paper. The sanctions with Iran will be removed over 10 years and only if the country fulfils all the conditions stipulated earlier. If the inspectors find that Iran does not comply with any requirements, the sanctions will be continued. 

Therefore, even unfreezing the Iranian assets in foreign banks which are frozen now is not a resolved matter. Therefore, it is premature to say that we have results from this agreement," Dolgov concluded.