Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (online, 18.04.13), under the title “Russia, Turkey split on eve of Syria rebel meet”, reports, inter alia, the following:

“Moscow and Ankara are still split on ending the two-year long Syrian crisis ahead of a meeting of the core group of the Friends of Syrian People on April 20 in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, the Turkish side has urged Russia to put pressure on Greek Cyprus [Trans. Note: Republic of Cyprus] to resume negotiations with Turkish Cyprus [Trans. Note: the breakaway regime in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus] to find a solution to the island’s division and act more carefully in its offshore oil and gas exploration activities, diplomatic sources told the Hurriyet Daily News.

Speaking after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab countries, opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad undermined dialogue.

‘Right now we see this process is making a negative contribution to the (Geneva) decisions,’ Lavrov told reporters in Istanbul, along with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, referring to a 2012 accord among world powers in Geneva aimed at solving the Syria conflict through talks involving all parties. Lavrov came to Istanbul to attend the third meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group, a sub-organ of the Turkish-Russian High Level Cooperation Council. Lavrov’s comments came ahead of a Friends of Syrian People meeting in Istanbul to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as well as several of his Western and Arab counterparts. Russia is not a member of Friends of Syria mechanism.
(…)

For his part, Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey have been doing its best by using any methods to prevent humanitarian tragedy in Syria. ‘Stopping the humanitarian crisis as soon as possible is important for us. We tried to convince [Syrian regime] with bilateral talks, with Arab League and also we carried out negotiations with Russia and Iran. Friends of Syrian People meeting, which brings together almost 100 countries across the world, is one of these mechanisms,’ he said. Davutoglu underlined that developments in Syria have carried out safety risks for Turkey. ‘Turkey became the most affected country from the two-year Syrian crisis and the slaughter that al-Assad conducts against its people,’ he said.

‘Both Scud attack against cities on border and Syrian operations that violate our border and possible chaotic situation which will likely to happen after Syrian regime collapse produce security risk for Turkey,’ he added.

Top diplomats also discussed the mutual commercial and economic cooperation between Russia and Turkey and future steps to taken toward the goal of increasing the volume of bilateral trade to $100 billion as agreed. (…)”

Columnist Murat Yetkin, writing in Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (online, 18.04.13), under the title “Russia and Turkey agree to disagree on Syria”, reports the following:

“It is business as usual in the improving field of economy, but there is a lot to be ironed out in regional politics; that could be the best way to describe the current level of relations between Russia and Turkey.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had extensive talks with his Turkish host, Ahmet Davutoglu, in Istanbul yesterday, April 17, in the framework of the third Joint Strategic Planning group meetings.

Russia is one of Turkey’s leading trading partners with a volume of $26 billion last year. The mutual trade contributes much to Turkey’s trade deficit, in the first rank, since Russia is Turkey’s number-one gas exporter. The Turkish energy minister recently said more than a quarter of Turkey’s electricity production is dependent on Russian natural gas.

Davutoglu and Lavrov reiterated the target pronounced before by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, to have a volume of $100 billion in the next two years, an ambitious target actually. But Russia is going to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, an important $20 billion investment on Turkey’s East Mediterranean coast, right across from the island of Cyprus actually.

Cyprus is one of the issues where Turkey and Russia fall apart. As Turkey’s European Union Minister Egemen Bagis joked yesterday, the ‘parents’, in this case Turkey, Greece and the U.K., have been trying to save the ‘marriage’ between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, who have actually had separate beds for decades. Russian investors have enjoyed financial benefits from the EU member Greek Cypriot government for decades as well. But as the dolce vita is over with the eurozone economic crisis, Russian money there is looking for other destinations to park.

Another political problem, a much bigger one, between Turkey and Russia is Syria. Russia has strong nerves to stand by its major ally in the region (providing the only naval base to Moscow) as Bashar al-Assad jets have started to bomb even the suburbs of its capital, Damascus, now. Lavrov and Davutoglu apparently agree on yearning about the human loss that the Syrian people are suffering, but that is the least common denominator and without much meaning other than lip service. The two countries part deeply on Syria and remained so right before a major meeting on Syria that is the Friends of Syrian People meeting on April 20 in Istanbul. As if to underline their agreement to disagree, Davutoglu met with Moaz al-Hatib, the leader of the Syrian National Coalition yesterday, in the same Ciragan Palace by the Bosporus where he had the meeting with the Russian delegation.

U.N. Security Council permanent member Russia knows that without the U.S. putting its weight into the Syrian civil war, because of concerns about the radical group al-Nusra, with its declared links with al-Qaeda, seizing power, al-Assad would like to keep his post. Ironically the interests of Iran and Israel converge with Russian and American ones there enabling al-Assad to keep his post no matter the human cost in the country is. Turkey, having a 910-kilometer border in between and a painful Kurdish problem on both sides of the border, has been trying to cope with the situation – including a refugee problem – almost alone for nearly two years now.” 

CNA