Originally appeared at DWN, translated by John T. Sumner exclusively for SouthFront
Turkey wants to position itself closer to Russia, even militarily. If these steps should be realized, the development could lead to considerable tensions within NATO. But Turkey takes the view not to be obliged obeying orders from NATO.
Turkey takes closer military cooperation with Russia into consideration. This was declared by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in an interview with the state-owned Russian news agency Sputnik. “It seems that the NATO members respond to issues of technology exchange and joint investment in an evasive manner. Turkey wants to develop its own arms industry and strengthen its military defense system. If Russia should develop an interest regarding this context, we are ready, to take the possibility of cooperation into consideration,” Cavusoglu said.
In an interview with the Anatolia news agency on August 10, the Turkish diplomat had said that Turkey and Russia would intend to create a joint military, intelligence and diplomatic mechanism, because the relations with NATO would not be satisfactory.
Cavusoglu literally: “At this point, Turkey wanted to cooperate with the NATO members. But the results received, were not sufficient for us. Therefore, we need to develop other options. But we do not consider this as a step against NATO. ”
The Turkish Foreign Minister especially criticized the view of the West regarding Russia and Turkey. “You consider Russia and Turkey being second-class countries and you are outraged to be criticized by those second-class countries. Due to the linearity and resilience of Putin and Erdogan they are now scared and worried (…) Look at what happened in Ukraine! They threaten the country and force it to choose between them and Russia. This is a pointless approach. The events in Ukraine are a mirror image of the main problems in the region, ” Cavusoglu said.
Last week, the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow said that NATO would not be entitled to impose its foreign policy on Turkey. “In no way, we will tolerate NATO restricting our contacts with other countries. This means that NATO is not qualified to force their regulations upon us and to determine whom we´re authorized to talk with and whom we´re not authorized to talk with”, the newspaper quoted Cumhuriyet Yardim.
