26.01.2019, Moscow.
Turkey, which used to coordinate its actions with Washington, now prefers to formulate its course in Syria, and in the Middle East in general, after consultating with Moscow, said Amur Gadzhiev, reasearch fellow at the Turkish Studies Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences on January 25 at a multimedia roundtable discussion on the outcomes of the talks between the Russian and the Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Moscow, a correspondent of the Rossa Primavera News Agency reports.
According to the expert, Ankara does not believe that the USA will abandon the idea of creating a so-called Greater Kurdistan, and it always expects “another sucker punch” from Washington.
“This means that Turkey associates the American Middle East strategy today with new threats,” Gadzhiev stressed, pointing out that Kurdistan, as the majority of Turkish observers believe, will “allow both the USA and Israel to confine Iran in the region as well as to influence the decision-making processes in Ankara, Damascus, and Baghdad.”
In this context, Gadzhiev stressed, it is also noteworthy that Turkey is changing its approach towards its regional policy.
“Although Turkey previously used to act in the region after consulting with the United States, and to formulate its policy towards other foreign actors based on agreements with Washington, today we see that the pattern has changed,” the expert noted.
“Today, when developing its Syrian and even, to some extent, Middle Eastern policy, Turkey does not only takes Russia’s interests into consideration, but it prefers to act in the region, and even in terms of cooperating with Washington, after the corresponding consultations with Moscow. And this is an absolutely new trend in the foreign policy of contemporary Turkey,” the expert concluded.
During the Turkish leader’s visit to Moscow on January 23, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a number of issues pertaining to the Syrian agenda. They included the situation in the northeastern Syrian provinces after the statement made by the US leader Donald Trump about the withdrawal of the US military from the republic, the escalation of terrorism, and other issues.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
