President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Ukraine last week sent a very strong message to both sides that Ankara wants to be an honest broker in restoring peace between Russia and Ukraine. It was Erdoğan’s first visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and took place shortly after his visit to Sochi for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Erdoğan, his Ukranian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met in Lviv and held a trilateral summit to discuss ways to establish peace through diplomatic means and maintain the mechanism for grain exports.
Before that meeting, Erdoğan and Putin had a four-hour conversation in Sochi on Aug. 5 where they agreed that Türkiye will pay for Russian gas in local currency.
The visit to Ukraine came days after this meeting. Until now, Türkiye has twice managed to bring Ukraine and Russia to the same table in Istanbul and Antalya to discuss a cease-fire but there was no result. Meanwhile the war may last much longer now since the daughter of Russian political analyst Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin was killed by a bomb coming from the Ukranian side.
However, Türkiye is the only country that both sides trust and want to see as intermediary whether there is the possibility of a cease-fire soon or not.
I should also highlight that the Erdoğan government convinced both sides to sign a deal to enable the transportation of 22 million tons of Ukranian grain from three Ukranian ports. On the other hand, Russia will be able to export its own agricultural products.
To oversee the grain shipments, a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) opened in Istanbul in July that includes representatives from the three countries and the U.N.
Erdoğan's initiatives since the war started are seen as a big diplomatic success all around the world. There is no doubt that Türkiye’s position is the key in briniging about peace today.
However, there are still deep problems. The conflict raging around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power is triggering alarm bells, with the potential of being the second Chernobyl. Erdoğan also raised his concerns about it during his speech.
Since the West is following a strategy designed to isolate Russia with embargoes and cut ties, only Türkiye can convey messages to Putin. The West has now started to question its strategy since gas has become very expensive and Russia is threatening to cut it as winter nears.
In the future, the European Union may follow Türkiye’s path and open dialogue channels with Russia. All in all, it will not be wrong to say that Türkiye's diplomacy has already been proven to be the right path in this conflict.
