On the eve of the inauguration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will lead the republic for another five years. And even if the advantage, as in the first round, was small – 52% of the vote for Erdogan, against 48% for his opponent Kemal Kılıçdaroglu – it was enough for Erdoğan’s supporters to start celebrating their victory on the very evening of the elections. , and the opposition surprisingly quickly conceded defeat. Vladimir Putin was one of the first to congratulate Erdogan, he himself did not come to the inauguration in Ankara, but, as the Kremlin reported, a new personal meeting of the two presidents is planned in a near future.
These elections were followed without exaggeration throughout the world. It is no secret that Turkey’s position towards Russia does not suit Ankara’s NATO allies. Today, Washington seeks to isolate Moscow, but Turkey chooses a different path – to protect its own national interests.
“If Turkey imposes sanctions against Russia, first, it will lose its balance policy. Second, it will be in conflict with Russia. What use is it to us? We maintain relations with Russia in key areas such as energy, trade and tourism. Look at the pressure from the West. We’ve been dealing with it in an incredible way for almost a year and a half now. Didn’t they hit us several times? We did not fall for the trap,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.
Indeed, Russia and Turkey have a special and close relationship based, above all, on mutual benefits. And it’s not just about tourists or trade. Our country is creating a European hub for Russian gas in Turkey to replace the blown Nord Streams. Together we built the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. Much remains to be done in the interests of both countries.
“In addition, Turkey’s policy will now become more independent in terms of promoting its interests in Eurasia in the first place. And their participation and find a place for the formation of a new world, a new geopolitical reality. Here, our interests contradict each other somewhere, and somewhere they coincide. But Turkey will not be able to do without the economic projects it is carrying out with the Russian Federation,” assured Elena Panina, director of the RUSSTRAT Institute for International Political and Economic Strategies.
Incidentally, in the US Congressional elections in November last year, voter turnout barely reached 50%. It is difficult to compare with Turkey, where more than 85% of citizens voted. This is indeed a popular choice, and the re-elected president stresses in his speech that the country will now make even greater efforts to solve global problems and regional security issues. In fact, it is the same thing that Erdogan has been doing for 20 years – to create from his state another center of power in our multipolar world.
How the vote went in the second round, and how Turkey’s politics and its place in the world will now change, see the plot of the correspondent of “Zvezda” Pavel Remnev for the program “The main thing with Olga Belova”.
Read the Russia Ukraine News on The Eastern Herald.
