The well-known website analyzes the way Turkey acts as a “Black Knight” nation and the balance maintained by Erdogan. The reference to Greece and relations with Ankara.
An extensive analysis of the role of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey in the Ukraine war was made by the website Politico. The publication characterizes the Turkish president as a “double agent” and devotes a large part of it to Ankara’s relations with Russia. “Whose side are you on?” the article begins, saying that this question may be on Volodymyr Zelensky’s mind every time he meets Erdogan.
Ukraine, according to the analysis, has reasons to thank Turkey as it contributed as a neutral mediator for the resumption of grain exports from the blocked ports, while a company from the country is already supplying Kyiv with unmanned Bayraktars. At the same time, however, Ankara faces the accusation of being a profiteering country in a state of war. A nation that helps avoid international embargoes, but does so for its own benefit, is called a “black knight” by experts. The increase in trade between Turkey and Russia, as well as the adoption of a Russian payment system by Turkish banks, has increased the view that Ankara has extended an open hand to Moscow.
“Turkey is pro-Ukraine, without being against Russia,” former Turkish diplomat Sinan Ulgen said recently. “You can’t be on both sides in a war like this. Turkey is a member of NATO”, an envoy from an EU country had said.
“In practice, there is little that Western states can do. There are points of leverage that the US and the EU have over Turkey, but there are great risks from their development. Greece already accuses Turkey of increasingly dangerous military actions with fighter jet overflights and violations in the Aegean and of pushing migrants into its waters. The West also does not want Erdogan to go back on his veto of Finland and Sweden joining NATO,” the Politico analysis states, among other things.
The website then refers to the increased trade relations between Turkey and Russia, the great economic benefits for Ankara, and Erdogan’s attempt to save his country’s economy by all means. One of them is the open line with Moscow and Vladimir Putin, while at the same time “pressuring” in every way, such as the instrumentalization of immigration, the West to reap benefits from this direction as well.
