Download This PaperTurkey and Russia: A Fragile Partnership
Turkish Policy Quarterly, Winter 2017
14 Pages Posted: 24 Apr 2020
Date Written: March 2017
Abstract
The Turkey-Russia relationship was significantly ruptured in November 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet. After a seven-month diplomatic rift and an apology by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, both sides committed to opening a new chapter. The parties started a multi-dimensional dialogue in the summer of 2016 by reviving cooperation in the energy sphere and coordinating their policies over Syria. In this article, the author argues that wider political conjuncture was important in restarting the dialogue, but it is still mainly actor-driven and the institutional underpinning of the relationship is underdeveloped. Current dynamics indicate that there is significant momentum to normalize relations – signs of cooperation in the spheres of politics and energy – however, the same fragilities that caused the breakdown in November 2015 still linger.
Keywords: Russia, Turkey, Foreign Policy, Syria
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