The Blooming Bromance of Putin and Erdogan

 The Times of Israel reports, that “ties between Russia and Turkey are growing closer than ever, as Russia runs into widespread diplomatic fallout from the poisoned spy scandal and Turkey’s relations with its Western allies worsens over human rights issues and its military operations against Kurdish militia in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to Turkey on Tuesday, joining Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony for a Russian-made nuclear power plant being built on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast at Akkuyu. On Wednesday, Putin, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a summit in the Turkish capital of Ankara to discuss Syria’s future.”

The Times of Israel also writes, that “Turkey and Russia have put aside their traditional rivalries and differences on regional issues to forge strong economic ties. In December, they finalized an agreement for Turkey to purchase Russia’s long-range S-400 missile defense system, a deal, that raised eyebrows among some of Turkey’s NATO allies. Aside from the power plant, the two countries are also building the “Turkstream” pipeline to transport Russian gas to Turkey.” 

Radio Liberty  reports, that Russia, Turkey and Iran are deeply involved in the seven-year war, cooperating to create “deescalation zones” to reduce fighting while backing separate sides: Russia and Iran support President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey supports rebels seeking his ouster. Russia and Iran have given crucial military and diplomatic backing to Assad's government throughout the war, which began with a government crackdown on protesters and has killed hundreds of thousands of people.”

Elizabeth Teoman of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that “Erdogan likely wants to use the summit to secure Russian and Iranian support for expanded operations in northern Syria or Iraq.”

Prepared by Marina Muradyan