There are three main reasons behind Berlin's passive approach to the Ukraine tensions. Among them, energy comes first
Seeking to curb Western moves, the Russian leader is ramping up talks with China and Turkey amid the Ukrainian tension
2021 was not filled with many positive stories about Turkish-European Union relations. At the end of 2020, in a report published The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), we assessed the conclusion of cautious optimism for 2021. While the side of caution prevails, the optimism has been delayed for yet another year.
Merkel’s last 16 years in office will be recorded in history as one of the most active periods in Turkish-German relations. Erdoğan and Merkel’s efforts to act as two rational actors on the axis of mutual interests became the main driving forces of this 16-year dynamism.
It is time to look at Turkey-Russia relations from the perspective of an 'early response to great power competition' rather than the classical balance-of-power approach.