Today at 20:15
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursues personal goals and issues of Turkey, by participating in the Russia-Ukrainian political problem. Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist and head of the “Penta” Center for Applied Political Research, talked about this on the air of the “Ukraine Speaks” marathon on the “Dom” and UA TV channels.
Erdogan has a political interest in trying to mediate peace talks between Ukraine and Russia:
“In this way, he raises his personal authority and seeks to enter the circle of the most influential world leaders. The grain agreement that was reached [July 22] in Istanbul contributed to this and, apparently, inspired Erdogan. He shows that he can resolve, to help in settlement of such a complex international conflict.”
There is also an economic interest. For example, Turkey is currently experiencing a difficult economic situation, high inflation. That`s why, the cessation of the Russian-Ukrainian war will favorably affect the Turkish economy, and the development of its basic business areas:
“Now there are practically no Ukrainian tourists in Turkish resorts. There are much fewer Russian tourists. The Turks are trying to make money on trade with Russia under the sanctions policy against the Putin regime. Nevertheless, the economic losses for the Turks are large. That`s why they hope that the normalization of the situation will also contribute to positive economic trends in Turkey.”
However, at the moment the situation with peace negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is deadlocked precisely because of the aggressive policy of the Kremlin:
“We cannot agree to Russian terms of peace, which involve keeping the occupied territories under Russian control. This is unacceptable for us.”
At the same time, it is important for Ukraine to cooperate with Turkey on a number of other issues. For instance, Turkey’s participation in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. The military-technical cooperation between the two countries continues. This was shown by the meeting of Presidents Erdogan and Zelensky on August 18 in Lviv:
“Perhaps, many of us do not like this dual policy of Turkey in relations with Russia. However, this is important for us, that Turkey is still actively cooperating with Ukraine and helping us to solve many difficult issues during this war.”
