Russia in Global Affairs

Like Russia, over the past century, both Turkey and Serbia have gone through historical upheavals, the collapse of the previous model of statehood, and a “re-assemblying” of the nation.

The South Caucasus is increasingly becoming an additional source of geopolitical rivalry between Iran and Turkey, which is expected to intensify further as Turkey’s influence grows and Iran’s perception of geopolitical insecurities increases.

It's premature to assert that Turkey is making a profound shift toward the West at the expense of its balanced strategy. Present signals from the Kremlin suggest that Turkey's recent actions are noted but will not lead to a dramatic fracture in bilateral ties. However, gauging the repercussions of Turkey's ambition to mediate between Ukraine and Russia remains complex.

In 2022, Russia turned out to be the biggest-ever target of economic restrictions, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The World Majority  abstained from them. However, calling them “black knights” is still premature.

The institutions for the development of Russian-Turkish relations have been inscribed into the structure of bilateral relations since 2010. Regardless of who wins the elections, it is important to maintain a high level of Russian-Turkish relations and to revise those institutions that contribute to their development.

By glorifying Turkey’s Ottoman past and Islamic roots while ascribing negative meanings to the West, Erdoğan set off the Turkish Ottoman Self against the Western Other and the Islamic Self against the Western Other.

The fragmentation of civil society and the lack of mutual trust among its organizations standing on different political platforms make it extremely difficult for civil society to consolidate its potential and generate sociopolitical development from below. The same factors do not allow external forces to achieve the desired result from their tangible and intangible investments in the development of civil society, and lead to soft-power fiascoes.

Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs Fyodor Lukyanov took part in an online discussion on Russian-Turkish relations. The discussion, titled «Cooperative Competition or Competitive Cooperation? Russian-Turkish Relations Today» was organized by The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Greece, and took place on May, 5.

Turkey’s foreign policy activity is probably designed to create an additional platform for foreign policy bargaining with Moscow on issues of interest to Ankara, and not by any means only in the South Caucasus. Along with bilateral interaction with Azerbaijan and with the countries of Central Asia, political, economic and humanitarian cooperation within the framework of the “Turkic Council” is being strengthened.