Turkey mends fences with Russia, Israel

/By Azernews/

By Fatma Babayeva

Turkey is on the way of restoring ties with Russia, whilst the process of bringing political relations to the previous levels is anticipated to take longer than economic ties.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent letter of condolences to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin can be the basis for the gradual improvement in the deteriorated relations between the two countries.

“Turkey shares the pain of downed Su-24 pilot's death with his family and sees it as Turkey's pain. Turkey is ready to take all steps required to relieve the pain and severity of damage to the deceased Su-24 pilot's family,” he stated in the letter.

The Turkish president expressed deep regret over what happened and told Turkey is ready to take all necessary steps to restore previous traditional and friendly relations with Russia.

Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on November 24, 2015. Turkey said the bomber entered its airspace, while Russia denied its warplane flying into the Turkish skies.

Following the incident, Moscow imposed a wide-range of sanctions against Turkey starting in January, including the end of visa-free travel and a ban on Turkish food products. Moreover, Russia called its citizens to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination. Economic relations between the two countries saw decline as well.

Turkish government was always willing to mend fences with Russia and kept the diplomatic channels open.

Earlier, Russian President voiced in Athens that his country wants reconciliation with Turkey and stressed that first move should come from Turkey.

In response to Putin’s statement all the senior government officials of Turkey made a call for Russia to establish a joint working group to discuss which steps can be taken to restore ties between two states.

The conditions put forward by Russia in order to put relations back on track were that Turkey had to apologize and compensate for the losses, which had been caused by a war crime (shot down of SU-24 plane).

In addition to the apology, Turkey agrees to pay compensation according to the country’s officials, which means Turkey fulfills the demands of Russian side.

During the past seven months since SU-24 incident, the relations of the two countries encountered many negative impacts. Russia does not consider Turkey a reliable partner anymore.

Addressing to Turkey’s apology, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Federation Council told Russian media that unfortunately, Turkey was late to take this step.

Restoring relations serve to the interests of both Russia and Turkey. Moreover, cooperation with Turkey plays a crucial role in combat against rebels of Syria and resolution of the crises in the region.

If relations better enough, there is even a chance to revive the suspended Turkish Stream – a replacement pipeline for South Stream which envisaged to transfer Russian gas to the European market and to bypass Ukraine.

Russia is the largest gas supplier to Turkey, while Turkey used to be a huge exporter of various agricultural products to Russia worth more than $1 billion.

Some experts relate Turkey’s recent initiative to Great Britain's exit from the EU. As the union is going to lose 13 percent of its budget and encounter problems with finance, which means under these circumstances, it is unlikely that Turkey will receive the fund promised by Europe for the upkeep of Syrian refugees.

In this context, new Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim recently underlined that Turkey needs more friends in the world.

The country is also improving relations with Israel. On June 28, the two countries plan to sign an agreement on the issue, which is expected to improve ultimately the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

The given agreement will enter into force after the approval by Turkey’s parliament and Israel’s Cabinet of Ministers.

Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom Flotilla incident in 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including one under Turkey's flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces, with eight Turkish citizens being killed.

President Erdogan said Israel should apologize for the Freedom Flotilla incident, pay compensation to the families of those killed and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Turkish PM told TRT Haber news channel on June 27 that Israel apologized to Turkey for the incident earlier, and Israeli government will pay $20 million worth compensation to the families of those killed as a result of the Freedom Flotilla incident and will give a permission for delivering humanitarian aid from Turkey to Gaza Strip which is under the Israeli blockade.

Normalizing relations is also in the interest of Israel, who strives to send its gas from Tamar and Leviathan fields to Europe via Turkey which in turn, wants to become a gas hub in the region.

Nevertheless, development of these fields is expensive, and no funds are available for the construction of such a pipeline for now.