President Erdoğan's visit to Ukraine
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Ukraine is taking place at a critical time. Just a few days ahead of his visit, Erdoğan held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the conversation, which was a "sincere" one according to Kremlin Palace sources, the two leaders addressed various aspects of bilateral cooperation and the course of important decisions that were taken at the fifth session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council in Ankara on Dec. 1, 2014. The two leaders, who verbalized their will on the further improvement of Turkish-Russian relations, focused on joint energy projects, including the Turkish Stream, as well as exchanging ideas about the resolution of the Ukraine crisis, ways of ending the conflict and the problems facing Crimean Tatars.
Erdoğan touched briefly upon the 1915 incidents, saying that Turkey wants the Armenian issue be approached from an objective historical perspective. He also noted that Armenia ignores Turkey's calls for peace and does not have a positive approach to Turkey's proposal to form a common history commission. Erdoğan's remarks show that Russia is following his visit to Ukraine more closely than the West, and this visit is also of importance for Russia, considering that the foundation of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) was laid in Kars just a few days before Erdoğan's visit and the inauguration ceremony was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili.
The direct transmission of Azeri gas to Europe through Georgia and Turkey is not only a move that involves energy, but it is also an important step for Europe to expand toward its east. Furthermore, the TANAP project is a response to Germany, which considers Europe as its own market, and its economic policies that date back to the 20th century. Today, the TANAP project has become the most important project of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Russia's rejection of the South Stream and substitution with the Turkish Stream means that it accepts the reality of SGC. Only if Russia accepts the reality of SGC and implements complementary policies can it respond to Europe's siege policies - which Putin seems to have understood. This is why Erdoğan's visit to Ukraine is important for Russia as well. Certainly, projects like the TANAP do not only bring integration in the field of energy, they also contribute to peace processes and reduce frozen conflict areas by strengthening integration in energy security, economy and politics. It should be noted that a Turkey that is constructive and influential in Europe and the Caucasian region will pave the way for a situation where everyone wins. Turkey is the only country in the region to prioritize a permanent peace process in the region covering the Middle East and Caucasia.
Another project complementing the TANAP is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line project, which is the most important line of the New Silk Road. Just like TANAP, BTK does not only cover three countries, it is also becoming one of the major commercial carriage projects of Asia and Europe, and particularly of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan ports. Central Asia is connected to Turkey (Marmaray) via BTK through the Caspian region. This line, along with the SGC, will connect Chinese ports to Europe through Turkey.
The world economy and politics are moving toward greater integration. We are moving toward a kind of capitalism where structural differences such as economic efficiency, technology, labor costs, infrastructure, environment and education are gradually disappearing with globalization. For the survival of the system, even in the medium term, these discrepancies need to be eliminated, although the previous period (system paradigm) was based on them. The differences between developed and underdeveloped countries or regions was the requirement and consequence of this system. Now we are living behind this as customs unions, free trade agreements, the assimilation of standards, the free circulation of labor, and the spread of infrastructural investments that will remove the differences in productivity, have begun emerging simultaneously. The regions that can achieve all this first will come to the fore and use their wealth.
Here, two main capital accumulation fields come to the fore in the short term - energy and human capital. As outlined above, a major step toward such an integration in energy will be taken by ensuring the security of natural gas pipelines and by putting SGC into effect as a price and supply regulator and market maker. Now, northern Europe is retrograding in the field of human capital. Asia Minor, starting with Turkey, is poised to determine devel
opments in terms of human capital and the circulation of skilled labor in the region in the upcoming period. From this historical perspective, Erdoğan's visits to conflict areas such as Ukraine, are of strategic importance.
Erdoğan touched briefly upon the 1915 incidents, saying that Turkey wants the Armenian issue be approached from an objective historical perspective. He also noted that Armenia ignores Turkey's calls for peace and does not have a positive approach to Turkey's proposal to form a common history commission. Erdoğan's remarks show that Russia is following his visit to Ukraine more closely than the West, and this visit is also of importance for Russia, considering that the foundation of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) was laid in Kars just a few days before Erdoğan's visit and the inauguration ceremony was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili.
The direct transmission of Azeri gas to Europe through Georgia and Turkey is not only a move that involves energy, but it is also an important step for Europe to expand toward its east. Furthermore, the TANAP project is a response to Germany, which considers Europe as its own market, and its economic policies that date back to the 20th century. Today, the TANAP project has become the most important project of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Russia's rejection of the South Stream and substitution with the Turkish Stream means that it accepts the reality of SGC. Only if Russia accepts the reality of SGC and implements complementary policies can it respond to Europe's siege policies - which Putin seems to have understood. This is why Erdoğan's visit to Ukraine is important for Russia as well. Certainly, projects like the TANAP do not only bring integration in the field of energy, they also contribute to peace processes and reduce frozen conflict areas by strengthening integration in energy security, economy and politics. It should be noted that a Turkey that is constructive and influential in Europe and the Caucasian region will pave the way for a situation where everyone wins. Turkey is the only country in the region to prioritize a permanent peace process in the region covering the Middle East and Caucasia.
Another project complementing the TANAP is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway line project, which is the most important line of the New Silk Road. Just like TANAP, BTK does not only cover three countries, it is also becoming one of the major commercial carriage projects of Asia and Europe, and particularly of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan ports. Central Asia is connected to Turkey (Marmaray) via BTK through the Caspian region. This line, along with the SGC, will connect Chinese ports to Europe through Turkey.
The world economy and politics are moving toward greater integration. We are moving toward a kind of capitalism where structural differences such as economic efficiency, technology, labor costs, infrastructure, environment and education are gradually disappearing with globalization. For the survival of the system, even in the medium term, these discrepancies need to be eliminated, although the previous period (system paradigm) was based on them. The differences between developed and underdeveloped countries or regions was the requirement and consequence of this system. Now we are living behind this as customs unions, free trade agreements, the assimilation of standards, the free circulation of labor, and the spread of infrastructural investments that will remove the differences in productivity, have begun emerging simultaneously. The regions that can achieve all this first will come to the fore and use their wealth.
Here, two main capital accumulation fields come to the fore in the short term - energy and human capital. As outlined above, a major step toward such an integration in energy will be taken by ensuring the security of natural gas pipelines and by putting SGC into effect as a price and supply regulator and market maker. Now, northern Europe is retrograding in the field of human capital. Asia Minor, starting with Turkey, is poised to determine devel
opments in terms of human capital and the circulation of skilled labor in the region in the upcoming period. From this historical perspective, Erdoğan's visits to conflict areas such as Ukraine, are of strategic importance.