Turkey angry with West; leaning on Russia: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Ryan Dawson, a political commentator from Nara, Japan, about the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday as a sign of normalization of ties after the shooting down of a Russian warplane by a Turkish jet last November.

The following is the rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Give us your thoughts on this rapprochement of relations between Ankara and Moscow.

Dawson: Yes, I think the timing of this meeting is actually crucial. You mentioned the energy relationships and power plant but of course they’re going to have to talk about Syria. He saw the relations warming up after the terrorist attack at the airport in Turkey. Instantly they apologized for shooting down the Russian airliner last November and in return Russia relaxed its restrictions on tourism to Turkey. Now Erdogan is meeting Putin for the first time since the incident of shooting down the jet, which was attacking terrorists in Syria.

They’ve got to be talking about what they’re going to do in Syria. Turkey has been pulling back its covert support for ISIS and ISIS has been losing the Syrian army with their supporters have been retaking parts of Aleppo and they are doing so as we speak. Also interesting that pilots who were involved in shooting down the Russian airliner were arrested under accusations of being part of the failed coup, which Erdogan blames on Fethullah Gülen. Of course Fethullah Gülen is 80 something years old. He is just the face of what is really Western-backed intelligence.

Press TV: Some of the analysts that we’ve spoken to here on Press TV have the opinion that we might see a 180 in the stance that Turkey has on Syria. Do you see it in that light as well?

Dawson: I hope so, I think they’ve already started that and that’s what I think happened between the time when they apologized and when there was an attempted coup. In this meeting, Turkey has already shown that they’re willing to withdraw support from these terrorist groups and they can’t admit that they were ever supporting terrorist groups. This was supposed to be done covertly but everybody knows that’s what was happening. And I think Putin is willing to forgive that, and I mean, relations. They both need each other and Erdogan has seen that his Western partners have been stabbing him in the back. And so, he’s only a direction left just to going into the arms of Russia, which is good for Syria.

Press TV: And do you think that these overtures being made by Recep Tayyip Erdogan or in a way to legitimize his post-coup actions as well?

Dawson: He’s getting a lot of flag because yes there was a coup and yes he’s purging people involved in the coup. It’s also a golden opportunity for him to purge normal opposition which he is doing too as pretty much any government would do so, but in doing this, this is gathering a lot of support. A lot of the Turkish people were never very warm to overthrowing Assad or supporting terrorists, most of them opposed it. Almost 90 percent opposed the war in Iraq as well. And so, if he wants relations with the people, he has to get on the side that it aligns with their ideology and a lot of Turkey’s people agree with the Syrians and the Russians that ISIS is the problem a lot of more severe than Assad.

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