The expert explained why Erdogan decided to give Ukraine the commanders of “Azov”

“A measure of how much a stick can be bent, but not bent”

After the meeting of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the most discussed topic was the extradition of the leaders of the Azov national battalion by Ankara (recognized as terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation. – “MK”). The Kremlin called Turkey’s move a violation of the terms of the existing agreements, and the public has many questions about what happened. MK, together with an expert, tried to figure out why the Turkish leader took such a step.

“The return of the leaders of the Azovites from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements. Moreover, in this case, the conditions were violated by both the Ukrainian and the Turkish side, ”the official representative of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the actions of Ankara, as a result of which the commanders of the Azov battalion returned from Turkey to Ukraine (recognized as terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation. -“ MK “).

At the same time, Peskov added that before the NATO summit, Turkey, a member of the alliance, was under great pressure, and Moscow understands everything perfectly. The silence of the Turkish media on this issue seems very strange. It seems like a high-profile event, but following the meeting of the two leaders, the press broadcasts only what Erdogan said, they say, “Ukraine deserves to become a member of the NATO military alliance.” Mention is also made of the Turkish leader’s hope for an extension of the grain deal, which expires on July 17, and Ankara’s repeated call for Moscow and Kyiv to return to peace talks.

Considering the well-established relations between Russia and Turkey, many people have a question: why did Erdogan take such a step? MK discussed this with MK-Turkey editor Yashar Niyazbaev:

– There may be several reasons for this. One of them is that Ukraine asked for weapons (the Ukrainian side stated that it would receive T-155 self-propelled howitzers from Turkey). An opinion is expressed that, perhaps, Ankara did not provide these howitzers, realizing that this would aggravate relations with Russia, but at the same time made a gesture to Zelensky (since he had already arrived) and gave away the commanders of the national battalion.

Secondly, this could be done in order to show its NATO allies that it is not pro-Russian and may even violate some agreements with the Russian Federation in order to support Ukraine. On the eve of the NATO summit, it is very important to demonstrate this, since there will be a lot of claims against Turkey.

One of the reasons is called the grain deal. Russia wants to get out of it, and perhaps in this way Ankara wants to make it clear that this is a very important agreement that Turkey also needs, so it is trying to signal Russia to stop.

Another option is that the operations of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the zone of Idlib, Aleppo and so on have allegedly intensified. Perhaps that could have had an effect. But the most important thing to understand here is that Turkey does not intend to spoil relations with Russia and understands that its messages will reach the Russian Federation. That is, if this is done for NATO, then Russia can understand this (Turkey has such expectations).

It is now unprofitable for Russia to escalate relations with the Republic of Turkey, because Ankara understands, since it has become a hub for the Russian Federation. Turkey knows this price and knows, perhaps, even the limits for how long it can raise rates.

– Many people are starting to talk about the fact that what happened could spoil Russian-Turkish relations, but so far it’s not worth talking about it, is it?

“It doesn’t benefit anyone. But each side can use its leverage to some extent. As I said earlier, there is a certain measure of how much a stick can be bent, but not bent. Maybe these boundaries are being evaluated.

– Why is this topic not widely discussed in the Turkish media?

– The commentators really do not even touch this issue, because they themselves do not understand what the point is. Plus, for Turkish citizens, this is not such a significant and sensitive issue as for Russian citizens.