Russian President Vladimir Putin received a letter from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the Turkish leader apologized for the downed Russian military jet and expressed sympathy and condolences to the family of the Russian pilot, as well as assured that Turkey will do its best to restore the traditionally friendly relations with Russia, as well as jointly respond to crises in the region and fight against terrorism.
A member of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, Igor Morozov, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the meaning behind these steps.
"Without a doubt, Erdogan's apology is an indication that he intends to restore the relationship. The question is how these broken relations can be restored, to what extent the trust between Russia and Turkey will be restored. This is a very important question. Maybe we will be interested in gradual removal of economic restrictions, which were imposed immediately after the incident with the jet by the decree of the President and the government," the politician said.
According to him, a question of trust arises as well. "Can we trust lives of our citizens who are ready to go to Turkey for a vacation?" the member of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs asks.
"Without a doubt, we need to gradually restore confidence. The only thing is that it must happen on the basis of the security principles," the expert believes.
Answering the question why Erdogan has decided to apologize now, the political scientist suggested that the Turkish president maneuvered himself into a corner.
"He fell into a trap which was a consequence of, firstly, his neo-Ottoman ambitions, and secondly, miscalculation of Turkey's role in contemporary international relations. In fact, after downing the Russian plane, Erdogan did not received adequate support from NATO. He did not receive sufficient support in the United States either. And, of course, the relations with the German parliament have been severed. The Bundestag, which supported the law on the so-called 'Armenian genocide', dealt a blow to Erdogan’s prestige. And now in connection with the Russian economic blockade he found himself in a crisis situation. It was a crisis of identity that coincided with international and domestic crises. Therefore, Erdogan was forced to radically change his political stand. He was forced, probably, to make the best decision in his political career. That is my personal opinion," the senator said.
As for Moscow's reaction to the apology, the senator noted that the authorities need to work on this letter. "The Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has accepted Sergey Lavrov's invitation to participate in the Foreign Ministers Council of the Black Sea Organization for Economic Cooperation in Sochi. And I believe that he will arrive with a mandate, which will make the first step in this direction," Igor Morozov concluded.
