Turkish Affairs Researcher : Erdoğan Exploits weapons to Fuel Crimean Conflict
At a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements confirmed his country’s readiness to provide military support to Ukraine to resolve its political crisis with Russia, an official in the Russian Crimean Peninsula considered that the Turkish President’s promises to help Ukraine “restore” Crimea are nothing but “a deceptive gift” and are inconsistent with the objectives of Turkish foreign policy, at a time when experts believe that they are a continuation of the Turkish style that aims at fueling conflicts as happened between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the crisis of the Nagorno Karabakh region, and also in Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
The Turkish President had previously affirmed Ankara’s support for the “Crimean Platform” through which Ukraine aims to “unite the international community around the peninsula,” adding that Ankara is “ready to provide all necessary support,” noting that “the European Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine must continue its mission to achieve stability in the Donbas region,” but the Turkish Fox’s rhetoric has always fallen into the trap of contradictions, as it shows the international community the cloak of social interest that seeks peace and stability, while at the same time it provides its arms to Ukraine and contributes to the intensification of the crisis with Russia.
Although Erdoğan explained that his country’s main goal “is for the Black Sea to remain an oasis of peace, stability and cooperation,” Turkish affairs researcher Mustafa Salah believes that Turkey’s declared policy towards the Crimean crisis is to inflame the differences and tensions between Turkey and Russia.
The researcher of Turkish affairs said in a call to “Al-Arab Mubasher”: The policy of inflaming Turkey’s differences over its stance on the Crimean crisis, which since 2014 has fueled Turkish-Russian disagreements and tensions – a fact that has been seen on many occasions – is a sign that Turkey has become one of the most economically and militarily invested countries there.
The Turkish expert added that this policy cannot be interpreted in isolation from Russia, which shares a number of issues with Turkey, especially the Syrian issue and the crisis between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It therefore tries to compete with Russian policy there as a kind of balance in their relations, in light of the escalating differences between them on these issues.
He continued : “As for Turkey, Ukraine’s drive to rely on weapons other than Russian ones has found an opportunity to get involved in the crisis there, considering that Turkey has been rejecting Russian intervention there from the very beginning,” he said. “Turkey’s provision of its defense industry to Ukraine will contribute to a range of developments, the most important of which is the possibility of continued military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as in the Donbas region, and simultaneously the escalation of Russian-Turkish tensions”.
Salah said : Turkey is trying to take advantage of these deals to extricate itself from its economic crisis after it faced domestic, regional and international economic challenges, including the imposition of sanctions and an unofficial economic blockade by some countries. He pointed out that in all of these developments, these repercussions could help escalate European and American tensions with Russia, with the possibility of relying on Turkey as a pressure card in other files with which it engages with the Russian side.
