Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an unacceptable head of state for the West because of his cooperation with Russia. On March 7, Izvestia was told about this by Ivan Starodubtsev, an expert practitioner on Turkey, the author of the Telegram channel “Turkey is this”.
“The West initially relied on the opposition in these elections, it never hid it. For the West, Erdogan became an unacceptable head of state after his position both on the possibility of purchasing S-400 air defense systems from Russia and on the implementation of strategic projects with the Russian Federation, including the Turkish Stream, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, a gas hub, and Turkey’s non-alignment with anti-Russian sanctions. And the whole policy of the West in recent years proceeded from one thing – Erdogan must leave, ”the expert said.
According to Starodubtsev, this explains “the West’s obvious overtures to the Turkish opposition.”
“Hence, all the visits of the leaders of the Turkish opposition to the United States, to the UK, all kinds of meetings in Ankara, in Istanbul, which are actively conducted by American and European diplomatic representatives with the Turkish opposition,” he explained.
The interlocutor of Izvestia noted that the Turkish opposition reciprocates with the West.
“If you read the opposition program published on January 30, it says a lot about Turkey’s return to the Western path of development. This whole program is prepared exclusively from this angle. [Возможно] curtailment of strategic development projects with alternative centers of power to the West, including the Russian Federation,” concluded Starodubtsev.
On March 1, Erdogan confirmed his decision to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. On March 5, the Hürriyet newspaper wrote that a majority of voters could vote for the incumbent in the election.
At the end of January, Erdogan called his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin honest and respectful and announced the same relations between Turkey and Russia as a whole.
On January 6, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced that the country continues negotiations with Russia on the issue of deferring payment for natural gas. A day earlier, the Turkish president announced in a conversation with the Russian leader about plans to complete the road map for the gas hub as soon as possible.
