Expert: Turkey’s criticism of Moscow is groundless

Russia does not need any mediators in its relations with third countries, including Turkey, Russian political scientist, expert on the South Caucasus Andrey Areshev said commenting on the last statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Cavusoglu said that one could not justify Russia’s actions against Ukraine and some other post-Soviet republics and added that Turkey was ready to play a constructive role in Ukraine-related disputes between Russia and the West. The Turkish foreign minister also expressed concern about Russia’s repressions against the Tatar minority in Crimea.

Areshev sees no grounds in Cavusoglu’s words. VERELQ quotes the expert as saying that the statement was meant for the NATO summit in Turkey as the Turks are NATO members and have certain obligations to that alliance.

“Cavusoglu believes that Ukraine must not choose between Russia and the EU, but this opinion does not jibe with the EU-US policy to push Ukraine as far away from Russia as possible. It was this policy that led to a crisis in Ukraine. So, the NATO summit will be a good chance for Cavusoglu to ask questions to his colleagues,” Areshev said.

Concerning the Turkish minister’s concerns about the Crimean Tatars, Areshev noted that Russia showed good will by allowing a Turkish commission to work in the territory of Crimea, in this light, any such confrontational statement looks as nothing but interference in Russia’s internal affairs.

Areshev believes that the Turkish Stream project will face huge problems. The first signal was the instability in FYR Macedonia. “Theoretically, Turkish Stream can be implemented as a bilateral commercial project, but the unfriendly statements by some Turkish government officials will hardly foster this process,” Areshev said.