I see nothing bad in Erdogan making deals that are in favor of Turkey even if they are with Russia and I say that as a guy who doesn't like neither Erdogan nor Putinists.
You guys are way too emotional and see things without trying to go deeper. If Turkey was the one attacked you wouldn't see a single European country sanction Russia over it so why should Turks not look for their own interests.
Make as many Russians (huge majority of those who come in Turkey now are upper class and well educated ones) as possible come to Turkey- let them pump their money and knowledge in the Turkish economy. Turkey wins from this while Russia loses.
Make natural gas deals with Russia and make Russians build as much pipelines and gas hubs in Turkey as they want. That will make them even more dependent on Turkey as the only big customer they have left in Europe. As long as they are the ones building the infrastructure from their pockets I see no problem. Plus Russia now is desperate so I am sure that it will be easy to buy gas on preferential prices too.
Many European companies left Russia so where is the problem if Turkish businesses try to fill some of the gaps left?
None of these deals help us in the long term. The more you make yourself dependent on Russia the easier it is for them to manipulate us. Europeans learned this recently with the gas politics.
If you want to make deals, the deals need to give us leverage not Russia. For example you buy more gas from Russia, if they need to manipulate us they cut it for a period of time. It has little effect on them but massive effects on Turkey. Not one pipeline Russia laid down on a 3rd nation was used against her, they were all used against Russian foes.
We are not making Russia dependent on us by giving them these sorts of deals. We make Turkey dependent on them. This is why no matter how many deals erdogan makes with Russia, they still looks to screw us. In Syria they back the PKK, in Libya they side with Haftar, in Azerbaijan they were giving Armenia free weapons and threatening us not to do anything. Meanwhile when the peace came even though Turkeys side won, the Russians still cut us out of the peace negations.
I could go on and on, we see nowhere where any of deals are helping Turkey, to the contrary they make it much harder for us to defend our interests against Russia.
Turks need to get this fantasy out of there head that we are making Russia dependent on us, we are not in no way whatsoever. We are being used as a tool of convenience, even then Russia does us no favours in any of our regional interests.
Show me one place where this illusion of russian dependence has helped us in our geopolitical concerns? Syria? nope. Libya? nope, Azerbaijan, Nope. Balkans, Nope, Cyprus, Nope, central asia, Nope.
yeah but were making Russia dependent on us, sorry as much as i respect you that is nothing but an illusion.
Also keep in mind the more options you give Russia, the easier it is for them to screw Europe and others, which makes their safer and stronger. Actually by allowing Russia to hedge her fears by using Turkey, you screw Turkey twice as hard. Because now Russia has more leverage against Turkey, but she is also protected from other 3rd party nations because she has more options.
Much of the world is screwing Russia right now and erdogan turned Turkey into a safe zone for them, madness. Outside of Ukraine the only other nation Russia has tried to screw as had has been Turkey.
I've learnt enough and seen enough in my lifetime to know that nothing good comes from russia concerning politics, nothing. Every nation who fell for her tricks ends up regretting it.
Especially since the jet downing Turkey should have been doing everything to limit her economic exposure to Russia. I sometimes suspect the reasons he's so quick to take russian money is because of the terrible shape the Turkish economy is. Just like with the UAE who he accused of being behind the coup, for investment he will do anything.
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