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GÜNAY HİLAL AYGÜN h.aygun@todayszaman.com

'Turkey might face making tough calls in Ukraine crisis'

As both the national and international media widely report on an ongoing crisis in Ukraine, mainstream Turkish dailies have also covered stories from that country over the past week.

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.