Turkey: Facing a New Millennium: Coping With Intertwined Conflicts by Amikam Nachmani

Author:Amikam Nachmani [Nachmani, Amikam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Social Science, Political Science, Islamic Studies, General
ISBN: 9780719063701
Google: eWO5DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 1362887
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2003-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

Common interests: civil and military trade

In as much as Turkey would have liked to have undercut, even expropriate, Russia’s monopoly over Central Asia’s and the Caucasus’ oil, it could not afford – even for such high stakes – to alienate Russia completely by pushing matters too far. Not only was Russia too big and too dangerous to provoke, and Turkey loath to endanger its supply of Russian gas, but there were also several other important military and economic interests at stake. Throughout the 1990s, Turkey and Russia enjoyed an extremely profitable commercial relationship, which, to a degree, tempered their political and strategic rivalry. Turkish trade with Moscow had flourished during the 1990s, and, though, by 1999, Russia was no longer the commercial gold mine it had been, owing to the demise of the lucrative suitcase economy, the CIS still accounted for 9 percent of Turkey’s overall imports – well ahead of the United States and the Middle East – and 5.6 percent of its exports.24 This was not something Turkey would give up lightly. Nor was it all a one-way street. As Russia’s principal trading partner in the Middle East, Turkey helped shore up Russia’s faltering economy and Russia had every reason to try and expand its commercial links with Ankara even further. Accordingly, throughout the 1990s, Turkey and Russia signed many trade deals and were continuously negotiating new ones. Their aim was that by 2010 bilateral trade between them should reach the sum of 10 to 12 billion dollars a year, making Turkey one of Russia’s biggest trading partners, second only to Germany, currently Moscow’s chief trading partner. It was an attractive prospect and provided both countries with a strong financial incentive to keep their relations on an even keel.25

In 1993, Russian–Turkish trade took on a new dimension, as Ankara began to purchase weapons from Moscow. The West’s reluctance to sell Turkey arms for fear that they might be used against the Kurds and its, to Turkey, irritating habit of threatening to deny Turkey weapons in order to, as Ankara sees it, blackmail it into improving its human rights performance, forced the Turks to look for other more reliable, less fastidious arms suppliers. Russia was the obvious choice, and Turkey in urgent need of arms, had few qualms in buying them from NATO’s principal ex-enemy. Moscow, in turn, desperate for money, was only happy to oblige. Thus, Turkey became the first NATO country to purchase, on a regular basis, a wide range of Russian military equipment including helicopters, armored personnel carriers, and air defense systems. It, naturally, did not want to do anything to jeopardize this welcome and relatively secure source of weapons.26

While Turkey’s relationship with Russia, during the 1990s was often distinguished by rivalry, especially in Central Asia, open conflict with Moscow was never an option. For one thing, Turkey’s basic westward orientation meant that it was simply not worth its while to contest Russia’s bid for the mastery of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Especially not in

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