The New York Times: Who is winning in the Putin-Erdogan relationship?
The New York Times said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin met twice in the past weeks, angering the allies of the former in NATO who tried to increase the ceiling of sanctions against the latter and build a consensus to stop his war in Ukraine.
Erdogan and Putin are seeking, according to the newspaper, to get rid of weaknesses and expand the features of the agreement in their partnership in the economic field, which the Turkish president hopes will reach $100 billion.
Regarding the winner and loser in this relationship, the newspaper said, for Putin, the benefits include energy, arms deals, and a bond with a member state of the NATO alliance that he is trying to isolate and defeat in Ukraine.
As for Erdogan, he tried to find ways to work with Russian banks that were imposed on them, accept payments through Russian credit loans, and not stop Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline.
The New York Times added: “There are reports of Russian attempts to obtain Turkish support through its weapons subsystems that are no longer able to directly obtain Western components”.
The New York Times continued: “For Erdogan, cooperation is a source of money and its flow to the central bank, obtaining international importance, a large market for Russian exports, the return of Russian tourism, and Russian approval, and this is important, for his efforts to crush the Kurdish militants who enjoy American support”.
Washington is monitoring the situation closely and said, “We have warned Türkiye not to turn it into a safe haven for illegal Russian assets and contracts,” and urged Türkiye to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.
Washington’s statement said that Türkiye supports the sovereignty of Ukraine and considers the Russian attack on Ukraine “unacceptable”.
Certainly, Türkiye opposed the Russian war and prevented the passage of Russian warships through the Turkish straits to the Black Sea.
It also sold Turkish marches to Ukraine that contributed to the killing of Russian soldiers.
As for the West, Erdogan’s dealings with Putin were not bad.
Türkiye maintained diplomatic relations with Moscow and became the mediator between Russia and Ukraine for the export of Ukrainian wheat and made rounds of possible peace.
Ivo Daalder, the former US ambassador to NATO, said: “Erdogan left all his options open, which is what countries do when they think about their own interests and what the allies do not, and he found a way to play his game, but he plays it at the expense of the alliance important for his security”.
But Daalder pointed out that having a NATO ally in a relationship with Putin is a good thing, “as long as he says the right things, and tries to solve the issues that are interconnected with the goals of the alliance and not weaken it”.
According to the New York Times, “Erdogan faces three aspects of anxiety, the first: telling the West that he can deal with Putin, the second: he expects money from Russia to ease the currency rates, and the third: he wants to be in agreement with Russia in the incursion that he wants to make with it inside Syria”.
Finally the New York Times concluded, that the relationship between Putin and Erdogan is strange in that both countries are cooperating and at the same time participating in proxy wars in Syria and Libya, and at the same time Türkiye wants Moscow’s approval to invade Syria to confront the Kurds there and maintain the fragile ceasefire agreement.
