A Balancing Act: Turkey’s misunderstood position on Ukraine
Tacan ILDEM, Ambassador (R), Chairman of EDAM
During a visit to Turkey last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged President Erdoğan to green-light Sweden and Finland’s accession to the Alliance. Some critics have argued that Turkey’s failure to ratify the Accession Protocols of the two Nordic countries is due to Turkey’s support of Russia. In reality, Turkey’s position is a result of its own legitimate security concerns. It expects the trilateral memorandum agreed upon in June by Finland, Sweden, and Turkey to yield concrete action from the two Nordic countries in its fight against terrorism which it considers an existential threat, while NATO’s new Strategic Concept defines it as one of the main threats that citizens of the Allied nations face.
This is part of a larger story. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in February this year, in some western circles, there has been a question mark over Turkey’s position vis-à-vis the ongoing conflict. At various international debates, I have at times observed that this has led to unjustified and misleading assertions regarding Turkey’s standing on the conflict.
Turkish policy since 2014
Turkey, first and foremost, is a member of NATO. All decisions since 2014 to strengthen the Alliance’s deterrence and defence in the face of Russia’s pattern of aggressive behaviour were taken with the strong support of Turkey, including those adopted at the Madrid Summit in June this year.
Analysing some salient features of Turkish policy since 2014 may shed some light on discussions around Turkey’s position. Turkey has stated its unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine with its non-recognition policy of the illegitimate and illegal annexation of Crimea. It has also taken part in the International Crimea Platform since its inception and has lent strong support to this initiative. Turkey has also highlighted the severe human rights violations perpetrated by Russia against the population living in the peninsula, including the indigenous minority: the Crimean Tatars.
The long history of Turkish-Russian relations
While Turkey and Russia fought a number of wars against each other in their imperial past, the Soviet Union was among one of the first countries to recognise the Government of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1921. In the following two decades, the two countries were able to engage with each other on the foundations of the Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression, signed in 1925.
In 1945 Soviet Russia wanted to renegotiate this Treaty together with the Montreux Convention that recognised Turkish sovereignty on the Turkish Straits, including the right to regulate the maritime traffic through those Straits. The Straits constituted the main reason for contention in Soviet Russia’s relations with Turkey and this issue, together with Russia’s territorial claims over some provinces in the Eastern part of Turkey, forced Turkey to accelerate its efforts to be part of the family of nations of the West. These efforts culminated in Turkey’s accession to the Council of Europe as a founding member in 1949 and becoming a member of NATO in 1952. Although there were not many options to ensure security in the face of Stalin’s ultimatums and territorial demands, one cannot ignore the importance of Turkey’s deliberate choice to be part of Western democracies rather than the autocratic regimes of the time…
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