Azernews.Az

By Fatma Babayeva

Although sending a letter of congratulation is a traditional and diplomatic gesture practiced between states for ages, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin is assessed as a step taken by Turkey to normalize the deteriorated relations between the two countries.

In his letter, sent on the occasion of Russia Day celebrated on June 12, Erdogan stated that he wishes the Russian-Turkish relations to reach a deserved level.

Although some Turkish officials pinned a hope for President Erdogan’s message to serve as ice-melting in ties and were waiting for a similar signal from the Russian side, Moscow left the letter unanswered.

Press Secretary for the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov said that exchanging letters during national holidays is an ordinary practice in international relations. Worsened diplomatic ties is not always a reason to cease sending such letters.

There were no other substantial moments in Erdogan’s letter, Press Secretary noted, adding that therefore, there is no need to reply this letter.

In the meantime, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the same occasion.

Earlier, Russian President expressed in Athens his country's willingness to restore relations with Turkey and stressed that first move should come from Turkey.

Nevertheless, actions speak louder than words for Russia. Russian officials ask Turkey to apologize and compensate for the losses, which were caused by a war crime (shot down of SU-24 plane) if they really want to restore the relations.

In response to this statement all the senior government officials of Turkey made a call for Russia to establish a joint working group to discuss which steps can be taken to restore ties between two states.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries soured after a Russian SU-24 trespassed Turkish airspace and shot down by Turkish F-16 fighters on November 24, 2015.

The incident was followed by harsh statements from sides shattering the traditionally friendly ties between the nations both politically and economically.

Turkey stated that Russian fight jet entered to its airspace, while Russia denied its warplane flying into Turkish skies. Turkey reiterated that Ankara didn't know who owned the plane that they shot.

Since then the governments could not achieve any rapprochement to move this diplomatic crisis from deadlock. The Kremlin imposed sanctions on food products, put an end to visa-free travel and called Russian people to boycott Turkey for as tourist destination.

After the sanctions, economic relations between the two countries experienced decline. In particular, statistics show that before the jet incident, about 1,500 Turkish companies operated in Russia in various spheres of business ranging from construction and tourism to imports of Turkish fruit, vegetables and textiles. However, currently, only about 200 Turkish firms are operating in Russia, according to non-official statistics.

Also, statistics show that Turkish exports to Russia fell to around $108 million in January, down two-thirds on the previous year.

Until the incident of SU-24, the political and economic relations between Turkey and Russia have had important and strategic nature, and some even speculated that the external forces are interested in the crisis in the Turkey-Russia relations.

Restoring relations serve to the interests of both Russia and Turkey. These two countries used to have deep relations in economic, political and cultural areas which cannot be discarded easily.

Russia is the largest gas supplier to Turkey, while Turkey used to be exporter of various agricultural products to Russia worth more than $1 billion.

Turkey also was a favorite destination of Russian tourists where they were welcomed and offered reasonable prices.

A source in Turkish presidential administration earlier noted that Turkey has never closed diplomatic channels with Russia.

Moscow and Ankara have long been holding secret negotiations for the normalization of their relations since the crisis in relations affects both countries in a negative way.

Additionally, Russia has not completely abandoned Turkish Stream either, as President Putin said earlier.

Turkish Stream replaced South Stream, which was the envisaged gas pipeline project of the Russian Federation to bypass Ukraine as a transit country.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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