Syrian factor prompted heating up of Turkey’s rhetoric over the Crimea, turkologist says
The conflict between Turkey and the Crimea, which until recently could only be labelled “Where to go on vacation” gradually becomes politicalized and escalated. Only the recent developments show that Turkey, not forgetting to mention with criticism the third year of the Crimea’s annexation to Russia, banned its own ships to enter the Crimean ports and the relocation of the troops in the Crimea is labelled as “preparations for the fight against Turkey.” Meanwhile, Cavusoglu announced that they had settled the disputes with Russia.
The correspondent of Panorama.am has conducted an interview with turkologist Levon Hovsepyan over the mentioned situation.
The latter dismissed the possibility that the Crimea could become a cornerstone for the deterioration of the Russian-Turkish relations. Hovsepyan noted that although the official Ankara has recently adopted a tougher stance on the issue of Crimea with its Foreign Minister announcing on March 16 that the annexation of the Crimea to Russia was illegal, this is not an issue that can irreversibly break off the relations between the two states.
“Turkey has heat up its rhetoric over the Crimean crisis, which should be considered on the background of the current developments in Russian-Turkish relations, in particular on the basis of the Syrian factor. Some issues have emerged in Syria, which somehow affect the bilateral relations. The thing particularly refers to the increase and deployment of the Russian military forces in the northern Syria, the districts under the Kurdish control,” the expert said.
He believes that on the basis of the mentioned incidents, Turkey has again started ‘to manipulate’ the factor of the Crimea imposing bans on the ships from the region.
“Nevertheless, I do not think that the factor of the Crimea can lead to a crisis in the Russian-Turkish relations. This is more a policy of using the leverages at hand by the two sides. For Turkey, however, the Crimean crisis is an important geopolitical leverage to use it in the appropriate time,” Levon Hovsepyan concluded.
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