02.10.2020, Moscow.
“Turkey began extremely negative operations against Russia and its interests long before the operation in Syria, right after the collapse of the USSR,” political scientist Sergey Mikheev said on October 1 on the air of Vesti FM.
This is how the political scientist commented the current statements that Turkey wants to make problems for Russia in the Trans-Caucasian region in revenge for Syria.
According to Mikheev, Turkish presence was reported in the zone of the North Caucasus conflict during the first and the second wars in Chechnya, especially during the first one. “The Turks also performed operations aimed at the Circassian population on the Kuban River, they supported separatist, nationalist sentiments in their diasporas, and they still make attempts to modify the public opinion in the Russian Federation,” the political scientist noted.
Also, the expert reminded of the Turkish influence in Crimea when it was under the Ukrainian authority, in Azerbaijan, and in the post-Soviet Central Asia (in all the countries except Tajikistan) through establishing their educational institutions, pro-Turkish NGOs, and “constructing quick strike mosques” to work with the Muslim clergy of the Central Asia.
“The Turks have been quite successful in entering the Turkish-speaking regions like Tatarstan and Bashkiria, and they worked there <…> We never laid a finger on Turkey after 1991, but it was already here,” Mikheev concluded.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
