Turkey and Russia: a slow-fuse time bomb in the Middle East

Antalya, Nov. 16, 2015: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) presented personalized commemorative stamps to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the most recent G20-Turkey Summit, just eight days before a Turkish F-16 downed a Russian SU-24 bomber (source: dpa)

General info

Location

Turkey

Date

6 January 2016

Contains

Report Scenarios

Tags

al-Nusra Front Bashar al-Assad Christian Daesh ethnic cleansing Islamic State Kurds Massoud Barzani membership minorities Muslims Nato population Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunni Vladimir Putin

Author

Charles Millon

Charles Millon is a French politician who served as France’s Minister of Defense from 1995 to 1997 in Alain Juppe’s government and French Ambassador to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007. He is one of the leading specialists on ...

The war for public opinion over the Middle East is heating up between Moscow and Ankara. Since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on its border with Syria in late November, the recriminations have been flying. Each of these powers is accusing the other of playing Daesh’s game, one by supporting the moderate opposition, the other by propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Both continue to ratchet up tensions, magnifying the risk of a direct conflict. A seemingly inevitable clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran will further complicate the situation.

Russia has accused Turkey of supporting Daesh, also known as Islamic State, through clandestine purchases of oil from the gro...

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That both countries have become embroiled in the Middle Eastern conflict stretching from Syria to Iran bodes ill – particularly when they end up nose to nose, with no buffer between them