A total of 88 people were killed in
Kiev's Independence Square in violent clashes with the police, causing
the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych a week ago. Following the
developments, the Ukrainian region of Crimea, where many ethnic Russians
live, recently made headlines with the eruption of unrest and Russian
President Vladimir Putin dispatching troops in Crimea, which is also
home to the Tatar Turkic ethnic group. The Ukrainian crisis has affected
Turkey more than expected, as its benchmark Borsa İstanbul (BIST) index
was pushed down 1.7 percent at 61,491 points with the emergence of the
threat of war between Ukraine and Russia.
Milliyet daily columnist
Sami Kohen wrote a column titled “Turkey's Ukraine policy” on Tuesday.
According to Kohen, the fact that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was
the first foreign minister to visit Kiev in the wake of the toppling of
the government indicated that Turkey has an active interest in the
issue. Kohen regards this initiative as an advantageous step in the
international community but warned that Ankara has to act carefully in
this crisis for various reasons. With regards to the situation of the
Tatar minority residing in Crimea, Kohen stated that the Turkish
government will have to position itself on the side of its cognates.
However, as a country currently standing with Western powers and which
also has strong relations with Russia, Turkey will be faced with making
tough choices as the Ukrainian crisis grows in the future, Kohen
commented. The present stance adopted by Turkey regarding the issue is
based on maintaining the independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Ukraine, which Davutoğlu reiterated during his Kiev visit,
Kohen said. This attitude appears to be in line with the West's
approach, he added.
Kohen also wrote that Turkey is expressing
opposition to Russia's latest aggressive policy without condemning it
openly or making harsh statements against it. Davutoğlu's visit to Kiev
after the change of government and meeting with the new leaders of
Ukraine point to another dichotomy with Moscow, which considers the new
Ukrainian administration “illegitimate,” Kohen stated. Nevertheless, the
columnist noted that previous disagreements between Turkey and Russia,
such as the Syrian civil war, did not ruin the close relationship
between the two countries.
Taha Akyol, a columnist from the
Hürriyet daily, pointed out in his Tuesday piece that Crimea is
historically significant to the Turkic Tatar community. Its current
capital city of Simferopol even has a Turkish name, Akmescit, which was
used in the past, Akyol stated. Its previous capital, Bahçesaray, was
assimilated by Russia starting from the 18th century by exiling the
locals, according to Akyol. After they later returned to their homeland,
Crimea now has a Tatar population of 300,000, consisting of 12 percent
of the total population, which means Tatars will have little effect on
the country's administration, Akyol commented. |
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