New challenge for Russian-Turkish relations

Yesterday a military delegation of Russia, which was headed by the Deputy Commander of Air Space Forces of Russia, Sergey Dronov, arrived in Ankara. The Russian officials met Turkish military officials to discuss preventing air incidents, such as when Russian aircraft, which were bombing positions of Islamic State in Syria, flew into Turkish air space. “We believe that the current meeting at the General Headquarters of Turkey is an important step toward a settlement of the situation. I hope that such situations won’t reoccur between Turkey and Russia,” Ali Kemal Aydın, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey, said after the meeting.

“It is difficult to discuss Russian-Turkish relations outside the context of the acute crisis in the Middle East unfolding in front of our eyes. As is well known, the Russian and the Turkish assessments of the origins of the crisis, its driving forces and possible ways out of the crisis, are not the same in many aspects. Nevertheless, our two countries are united in one thing – in our desire to confront the international terrorism decisively represented by ISIS. A joint fight against ISIS could be the beginning of joint work on an even more ambitious task, the task of building new foundations for the future world order,” Igor Ivanov, President of the Russian Council on International Affairs, is sure.

According to him, “since the end of the Cold War we have seen a steady growth of regional and global instability, the occurrence of multiple crises, an increase of the volatility of the global economic and financial system. There is a decrease in the efficiency of many international organizations, an erosion of the basic norms of international law. These dangerous trends have accelerated dramatically in recent years, and it gives a reason for politicians to talk about the occurrence of near anarchy and chaos in world affairs.”

Ivanov is sure that “only the most irresponsible players in world politics and economics can win from a loss of control. They are the extremist political movements and international terrorists, the radical populists and speculators. Anarchy and chaos do not promise anything good for anyone else. And if it is so, then we can talk not only about a desire, but also about a real opportunity to join the efforts in the fight against the growing regional and global instability.”

The former Foreign Minister of Russia says that “the relations between Russia and Turkey are directly related to the solution of this strategic task. Today Russian-Turkish cooperation has reached an unprecedentedly high level. It is not only in the economic sphere, but also in the political and humanitarian spheres. A trust that had never been seen before formed between our two countries and between our leaders, our businesses, between the Russian and the Turkish societies as a whole, and that allows the most complex problems to be solved. We are not living in the easiest times. So we should not be surprised that there may be disagreements and different approaches to the certain issues even between partners. Our countries have different approaches on a number of the issues. Now these differences are quite significant. But our countries, our leaders, have never interrupted the dialogue, have never abandoned the discussion of pressing issues, always trying not to damage the interests of each other. That is why our relations have stood the test of multiple crises.”