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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has a 40 percent approval rating at home and is fighting skyrocketing inflation, took a trip to Ukraine last week, playing the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine. He said he made the trip because Western countries have failed miserably in their effort to calm tensions in the region.
Erdogan called the U.S. a hindrance in these efforts and the Biden administration has not made a positive contribution in these discussions.
The Turkish leader commented:
“I have to say this very clearly: if you pay attention, the West has unfortunately not contributed anything to solving this matter. I can say they were literally only a hindrance. There is a serious issue in Europe now in terms of leaders who can solve this issue [since Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor, stepped down.] When we look at…the United States, Biden has not yet shown a positive approach to the matter.”
Russia and Turkey have faced some geopolitical tensions in recent years, including the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. (See “ARMENIA VS. AZERBAIJAN: SPREADING WAR.”)
Turkey was seen as a “bully in the region” and has pushed aside Russia from its role as a mediator between the two sides over the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, which has seen its worst violence in over 25 years at the time.
The conflict tested Moscow’s influence in the South Caucasus. Moscow ended up with the upper hand over Turkey by inserting its own peacekeepers into Nagorno-Karabakh, while Turkish troops were stationed outside the enclave.
Sinem Köseoğlu, an Al Jazeera reporter in Istanbul, said Erdogan sees himself as a viable mediator between Kyiv and Moscow because he believes he can “talk freely and frankly” with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Putin.
Erdogan has said that he does not want to see a conflict but said—if Russia decided to invade Ukraine—Turkey would do what is necessary to hold the eastern flank of NATO.
The report said that Moscow has declined invites from Ankara to bring the three leaders together because the Kremlin is unhappy with Turkey’s decision to supply combat drones to Kyiv.
Defense News reported that Turkey and Ukraine have both agreed to co-produce a new Turkish-made drone in Ukraine. Kyiv announced in September that it planned to purchase 24 additional Turkish unmanned combat aerial vehicles. Erdogan’s approval was seen as a rebuke of the Kremlin.
The New York Times reported that Ukraine has employed the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones against the Russian-backed separatists back in October. The paper said the strike stunned the separatists and angered Russia because it was an example of Kyiv using a NATO-provided weapon.
TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal has reported on the dire economic situation that Erdogan faces on the domestic front. (See: “TURKISH LIRA PAUSES ITS DECLINE; ERDOGAN FIRES STATISTICS CHIEF,” “TURKEY’S MARKET CRASH, CURRENCY CRISIS”S and “TURKEY: THE FAMOUS LIRA DIVE.”)
And as Gerald Celente has repeatedly noted, “When all else fails, they take you to war.” And Turkey is failing. With U.S. tensions increasing in both Syria and Ukraine, Turkey is poised to militarily intervene.