Russian-Turkish Relations: What to Expect?

• 04.30.2016, 18:57
•  EEU,  Region,  World

theturkishsun.com

The negative results of the Russian aircraft destruction by Turkish military forces because of the 17-second violation of Syrian airspace are seen up till now. Since November 24, 2015 no significant event that could mitigate the effects of the crisis in the Russian-Turkish relations has occurred. On the contrary, critical rhetoric of the two countries and mutual accusations has led to an aggravation of bilateral relations. Before shooting down the Russian aircraft it seems that Turkish authorities didn’t even think that the counter-strike would be so painful.  

The consequences of the aircraft crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia continue to negatively affect the Turkish economy and ruin the Turkish farmers. As Vostexpress reports, reduction of Turkish exports of fresh fruits and vegetables to Russia fell by 74%. Moreover, in addition to the introduction of visa regime, Russia stopped selling tours to Turkey thus causing a big blow to the tourism industry.

As to Turkish businessmen in Russia, according to Independent.ie, they face several obstacles created by Russian authorities.  Turks register their companies in the names of Russian relatives or trusted Russian friends to try to avoid additional checks from police. 

In addition, according to Russian Foreign Ministry a number of specific restrictive measures in respect to bilateral trade, economic and inter-regional cooperation, including the participation of the Russian Federation in the activities of TURKSOY (the International Organization of Turkic Culture) will also be established, RIA Novosti reports.  

It is noteworthy that though several Turkish politicians from time to time speak out about the importance of Russian-Turkish relations (for example, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin announced on Monday, that Ankara is not going to sacrifice the ties with Russia despite deterioration of bilateral relations) Russian side has yet no plans for normalizing the relations with Turkey.

The "Russian foreign policy in 2015" review published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 26 also witnesses the abovementioned. According to the Ministry, the anti-Russian position of the Turkish authorities does not allow to normalize bilateral relations with Russia in the foreseeable future.

As stated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, relations with Turkey to this point were able to promote through contacts at various levels. But together with it negative potential gradually grew, connected with differences in the positions on a number of issues on the bilateral agenda and regional issues (connected with Syria, Syrian and Turkish Kurds and so on).