Russian-Turkish friendship ends in Syrian sky

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24 By Rufiz Hafizoglu, Aygun Badalova – Trend: It is not the first time that the planes of Russian military space forces violate the Turkish airspace, but apparently, the incident, which occurred Nov.24, will be remembered for a long time. Although the Russian side claims that the airplane of Russian military space forces crashed exclusively on the territory of Syria, the Turkish General Staff said that the Su-24 was downed over the Turkish territory after it violated the airspace. It should be noted that the incident occurred just before the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Turkey to discuss the Syrian crisis, which has led to deterioration of relations between the two countries. Despite the statements of the Russian side that it is too early to talk about the political crisis between the two countries, some experts don’t exclude the fact that namely the incident on Nov.24 became its beginning. Political disagreements between Russia and Turkey will, of course, influence their energy relations, as well as the realization of a number of projects. This will primarily touch the ‘Turkish Stream’ gas pipeline project, as well as the project for construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which is a Russian initiative. The ‘Turkish Stream’ was expected to be one of the discussion topics during Lavrov’s forthcoming visit to Turkey on November 25. And if there were previously at least some hopes for progress in the issue of implementation of the Turkish Stream, in particular, the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on it, now it is clear that no agreement will be achieved in the near future. It is clear that the latest incident will be the main topic of the upcoming talks in Turkey, if they take place, as the Turkish media don’t rule out that Lavrov will cancel his visit. Deterioration of the Turkish-Russian relations is not beneficial for them. It is not ruled out that Russia, which often uses energy issues as a tool of political pressure, can temporarily suspend gas supply to Turkish market. Turkey, for its part, can use the political crisis as a reason for refusing from the Turkish Stream project. All the more so, Turkey has a quite weighty argument for that: Ankara has repeatedly stated that it won’t buy Russian gas without a discount. Today’s incident with Russian plane can be a turning point in Russian-Turkish relations. Even if the sides manage to somehow resolve this problem, it won’t be easy to restore the previous level of cooperation. --- Rufiz Hafizoglu and Aygun Badalova are Trend staff commentators Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency