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ANKARA: Putin, the first Russian president to visit Turkey in decade

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  • ANKARA: Putin, the first Russian president to visit Turkey in decade

    Turkish Daily News
    Sept 2 2004

    Putin, the first Russian president to visit Turkey in decades, hopes
    to cap growing economic ties with Turkey by coming to Ankara
    Turkey, Russia shift into a new orbit

    Putin and Turkish leaders will bypass contentious matters in public
    but cannot avoid Chechnya, the PKK and disputes in the Caucasus
    behind closed doors

    ELIF UNAL ARSLAN

    ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
    Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish officials hosting the first
    Russian president to visit Ankara in decades will endeavor tomorrow
    to slough off the disputes of the past and cap growing economic ties
    between long-time rivals Russia and Turkey with a political
    breakthrough in public.

    Putin is scheduled to arrive in the Turkish capital tonight and will
    meet with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer tomorrow for top-level talks.
    Later in the day, he will get together with Turkish Prime Minister
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the pair is expected to fly to the Aegean
    city of Izmir in the afternoon where the Russian leader, along with
    Erdogan, will visit the Izmir International Fair and meet with
    Turkish and Russian businessmen before departing from the port of
    Izmir in a Russian naval vessel.

    When the two presidents pose for the cameras at the Presidential
    Palace, they will be inking a declaration for "Friendship and
    Multidimensional Partnership" that marks a shift in the two
    countries' ties, which were strained by mutual security concerns and
    rivalry over luring the Caucasus and Central Asian republics into
    their individual spheres after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
    1991.

    Turkish officials say an evolution in commercial relations between
    Ankara and Moscow is pushing for political progress. "Our economic
    relationship has grown, but political dialogue between us has
    remained behind this growth. Our trade volume is increasing by 30
    percent a year, and in the last 10-15 years it has grown from $150
    million per annum to $10 billion. That explains the importance of the
    Putin visit," a Turkish official said.

    The declaration that is due to be signed at the Presidential Palace
    will highlight diversification in the profit-making areas of mutual
    ties, in particular trade and economy and the energy and tourism
    fields, another Turkish official said.

    In addition to the declaration, the two leaders are expected to seal
    five more documents. Among them are two military deals, the first of
    which is intended to prevent the occurrence of dangerous incidents
    outside of territorial waters, and a second that will protect
    intellectual property rights to the exchange of know-how and
    equipment in this field.

    The rest of the documents to be wrapped up are a cooperative
    agreement between Turkey's BOTAS and Russia's Gazprom on gas sales,
    the distribution and construction of gas storage facilities, a
    memorandum of cooperation between the Turkish Foreign Ministry's
    Strategic Research Center (SAM) and the Russian Federation's
    Diplomacy Academy to exchange experts, and finally a trilateral
    agreement among Turk Eximbank, Russian Eximbank and GunesEconombank
    to provide financial resources for exports primarily to the Central
    Asian and Caucasian republics, the Middle East and western Asia.

    Affirmations and realities
    Turkish officials and Russian diplomats in Ankara both insist that
    the previously fierce competition for winning over the Caucasus and
    Central Asian republics has now been replaced by partnership savvy. A
    Turkish official told the Turkish Daily News that the trilateral
    agreement that envisages providing financial resources primarily for
    those countries was proof of that perception.

    Many agree that the rivalry between Ankara and Moscow in those
    republics, some possessing rich oil and natural gas resources, has
    lessened to a certain extent, partly because Ankara has been locked
    onto its long-running aspiration to join the European Union and
    partly due to a change in mutual perceptions on the part of both
    countries in regional matters.

    The mutual skepticism between the two capitals, however, looks far
    from disappearing completly.

    Russian Ambassador to Turkey Petr Viladimirovic Stegniy told the TDN
    in an exclusive interview that developments in Georgia, Armenia and
    Azerbaijan would still be on the negotiating table for Putin and
    Turkish leaders. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said matters in the
    Caucasus would be discused.

    Turkey is discomforted by the presence of Russian military bases in
    Georgia and Armenia, and Russia views with deep suspicion Turkey's
    cooperation with Georgia and Azerbaijan.

    Ahead of Putin's visit, mass-circulation Turkish daily Hurriyet
    reported that the Russian leader would ask Ankara to pursue a
    "balanced policy" towards Georgia and not to "spoil" it amid recent
    tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over Georgia's breakaway South
    Ossetia province, to which Moscow is allegedly providing backing.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Georgia
    mid-August and urged a peaceful solution to Georgia's internal
    disputes, both in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia plays a crucial
    role for both Turkey and Russia since it is part of a U.S.-backed
    project, namely Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, to transport Azeri crude oil to
    Western markets through Georgia and Turkey, scheduled to be realized
    in 2005.

    Ankara had pushed hard for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export
    pipeline project that would bypass both Russia and Iran, whereas
    Moscow had backed the "northern route" to Novorossiysk in an attempt
    to control Caspian energy export routes to the West. Now Turkish
    officials and Russian diplomats in Ankara say Russia is interested in
    taking part in the Bakhu-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project.

    On the South Ossetia dispute, the official policies of both Moscow
    and Ankara are not too different. Both countries support a peaceful
    solution to the South Ossetia conflict within Georgia's territorial
    integrity. An identical picture is valid for Nagorno-Karabakh, which
    has caused tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Turkey and Russia
    once again share a similar official stance, that is, a peaceful
    solution to the trouble there within Azerbaijan's territorial
    integrity.

    But Ankara and Moscow, in reality, have differing views on the
    resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh, with the two siding with opposing
    Azerbaijan and Armenia respectively.

    When it comes to the mutual accusations of the past of alleged
    Russian support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now
    known as PKK/Kongra Gel, and alleged Turkish backing for Chechen
    separatists, it is easier for Turkish and Russian officials to admit
    that "reciprocal mistrust" will not vanish quickly. However, they
    say, frequent meetings between security officials and the regular
    exchange of information have helped significantly and that headway
    has been made to a certain extent to boost confidence.

    After a Chechen militant raid on a five-star hotel in Istanbul three
    years ago, Turkish authorities began to crack down more harshly on
    Chechen sympathizer groups, a departure from Turkey's treatment of a
    group that had seized a ferry in 1996 in the Black Sea port of
    Trabzon. The hijackers were later jailed for their act but
    mysteriously managed to escape from prison one by one. On the
    Russians' part, Moscow no longer seems to allow outlawed PKK
    activities such as a 1996 conference titled "The History of
    Kurdistan" organized by PKK-linked groups there.

    In a sign of progess, Russian Ambassador Stegniy said Turkish and
    Russian officials had been discussing ways to put the PKK on Moscow's
    list of terrorist organizations. He, however, added that it would
    require a Russian court decision.

    Mutual expectations are running high for the Russian president's
    visit to Ankara. But it is quite clear that even if Putin and Turkish
    leaders are able to bypass contentious issues in public, they cannot
    not evade them behind closed doors.

    Ivanov to hold separate talks
    While Putin is attending talks with Turkish leaders, his defense
    minister, Sergei Ivanov, will be holding separate negotiations today
    with Turkish defense and military officials at the invitation of his
    Turkish counterpart, Vecdi Gonul.

    Ivanov is expected to seek ways to increase military cooperation with
    Turkey that, according to a statement issued by the Russian Defense
    Ministry, include the joint licensed manufacture of Russian-Israeli
    joint-production Ka-50-2 Erdogan attack helicopters.

    The Russian ambassador, however, was not hopeful that the issue would
    be a top agenda item for Ivanov's talks since Turkey had canceled an
    earlier tender to purchase attack helicopters that was participated
    in by the Russian-Israeli joint venture, and a new tender has yet to
    be opened.

    Turkish officials say the Russian minister will likely be told that
    the Erdogan will be able to join with other attack helicopters once
    Turkey opens a fresh tender. Ivanov, along with Foreign Minister
    Sergei Lavrov, will accompany Putin in his meetings.

    Among the other agenda items of the Russian president's visit is
    crude oil transportation through Turkey's busy straits. Turkey has
    long complained of the passage of too many oil-laden ships through
    the narrow straits, saying this constituted an environmental danger
    and a threat to the safety of Istanbul, a city of 13 million that
    straddles the waterway. Russia has complained about its financial
    losses stemming from delays in the passage of oil tankers carrying
    its oil.

    Turkish officials say Ankara and Moscow are now looking at
    alternatives, such as possible pipeline routes, but no final outcome
    in this area is expected during Putin's time in Ankara.

    Turkish leaders are also expected to request Putin's support for
    Turkey's policy on the divided island of Cyprus.

    Russia, one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security
    Council, is perceived as one of the major sympathizers of the Greek
    Cypriots, who overwhelmingly voted against a U.N. plan in April aimed
    at reunification of the island.

    The Greek Cypriots are lobbying to block efforts on U.N. and European
    Union platforms to end the international isolation of the Turkish
    Cypriots as a reward for their support of the U.N. plan.

    Turkish officials agree that Russia so far has pursued a pro-Greek
    Cypriot policy but say that Moscow has come to balance that position
    recently, noting that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov met with
    Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat on the sidelines of
    the latest foreign ministers' meeting of the Organization of the
    Islamic Conference (OIC), which convened in mid-June in Istanbul.
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