Russia and Turkey have a long way to reach complete cooperation, since it is the nature of politics, the President of the Institute of Asia and Africa of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Mikhail Meyer, noted in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the beginning of restoration of relations between the two countries after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's official apology for the downed Russian plane.
First of all, he expressed confidence that this step showed Ankara's genuine readiness to normalize relations. "So now the question is whether Moscow ready to forget about everything and start to be friends from scratch once again. The reaction of our federal authorities to the actions of Erdogan is still unclear to me, however, if Turkey is ready to resume relations, and we did not express demands other than an apology and compensation for the downed plane, it can be assumed that it is possible to start contacts from the beginning. Still, politics is much more complex concept than accounting report, it is necessary to have much more cautious approach to this issue. I hope that over the remaining half of the year we will be able to find enough opportunities to settle our relations," he pointed out.
He urged to be just as cautious regarding the phone conversation of presidents, which was held today. "I don't think they said 'let's forget everything'. Apparently, there will be more cautious expressions, more streamlined, of more diplomatic nature - that we accept apologies, we understand the situation and also hope to improve relations. In the end, I believe that we got what we wanted," he said.
He admitted that he did not expect such fast Turkey's transition from denial of guilt to apologies. "I did not think that Ankara will change its mind and would want to reconcile, on the contrary, I expected that the situation will last for several years. Perhaps this year wasn't good for Turkey if they decided that it is time to apologize. The EU refused Erdogan quite harshly, and overall reaction of the Western powers showed that his course in the foreign policy did not receive any approval. It was perceived pretty critically not only by us, but also by the West. So such, I would say, double trouble for Turkey appeared," he stressed.
Meanwhile, the restoration of relations at the level of scientists and experts was happening for several months already, he told. "I was in Turkey recently, spoke at the conference together with Russian and Turkish colleagues, later they sent me their magazine, 'Today's Eurasia', and I was on its cover together with former Turkish Ambassador to Russia Halil Akinci and Dmitry Dmitrievich Vasilyev. Most interestingly, the headline said: 'This is the first joint conference after the incident with the downed plane,' so I realized that a certain shift was already outlined in April, after all, this magazine is published not without the influence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the expert stated.
"Certainly this time passed unexpectedly quickly, but now we can see that the process truly moved from a place. Nevertheless, I believe that Erdogan got the feeling that he really made some wrong steps and wrong actions," he concluded.
