Russia’s strategic interest lies in an alliance with Turkey

I do not think that the United States has abandoned Turkey, as the current Turkish-Russian crisis is the result of a rapprochement between the US and Turkey on a regional level. I blame the pro-American forces in Turkey for shooting down the Russian jet. Overall, Turkish foreign policy in the region has been significantly damaged by the Russian-Turkish crisis resultant of Turkish-American rapprochement, which has in turn contributed to a warming of Turkish-Israeli relations.

Turkey’s shooting down of the Russian jet was just the first act of the US-incited crisis between Turkey and Russia. The invitation of Demirtash, the leader of the Turkish People’s Democratic Party to Moscow was the second act which deepened the crisis in Russian-Turkish even further. The US needs a partner for its strategic goal of establishing Kurdistan in the Middle East, and such a parter might be found in Russia taking their side to protect and help establish a Kurdistan. However, I doubt that Russia will take such a stance, as Russia realizes that its long-term strategic interests lie in an alliance with Turkey more so than with the small Kurdish group supported and directly controlled by the United States, as is the case with the PKK and their legal partners. I also think that Russian experts and politicians will notice that the PKK is about to be crushed by Turkish authorities and security forces. Accordingly, Moscow will realize that there is no future for any possible pressure on Ankara via the Kurds.

As the Patriotic Party, we have recently visited Syria and met with the deputy minister of foreign rela-tions, the minister of information, as well as high-level security authorities. From the point of view of the Turkish government, our visit clearly contradicts official Turkish policy. But they have not dared attack out visit because they feel that there is no longer any support among the population for their Syria policy. This was different before, but now the government’s discourse on “the dictator who must leave office” does not receive any support from the Turkish population. In the end, the Turkish government is incapable of criticizing attempts at reestablishing Turkish-Syrian relations.