All Ukrainians and patriots of Ukraine now have a clear mission: Book a vacation to Turkey. Why? Russia is throwing a tantrum over Turkey’s strong backing of Ukraine over the weekend.
During his April 10 meeting and subsequent press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stood firm in support of Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty. He called for the Kremlin to return Crimea and the Donbas to Ukraine after seven years of Vladimir Putin’s military adventure designed to destroy Ukraine as a nation. It didn’t, but through brute force and in violation of international law, the Kremlin has controlled 7 percent of Ukrainian territory since 2014.
Erdogan also clearly supported Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO, starting with a Membership Action Plan.
That’s far more support than Ukraine is getting from its supposed European allies, including mealy-mouthed powerhouses Germany and France, whose foreign policies continue to placate the blood-soaked Kremlin dictator and put their selfish economic interests above European security. These two nations have too many businesspeople like Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor and now Putin’s lavishly paid bootlicker, to put democratic values over commercial interests. Germany and France also shamefully issued an April 4 joint statement calling on both sides to de-escalate, as if to equate Russian aggression with Ukrainian victimhood.
The United States shouldn’t be let off the hook. It responded weakly in 2014, with U.S. President Barack Obama outsourcing the Western response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine to Europe and his vice president, Joe Biden. Obama also became the first president since Ronald Reagan not to visit Ukraine because he didn’t view the nation as a core U.S. interest. But Obama, in his classic April 2016 interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, said Russia made a mistake by invading Ukraine. “Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence,” Obama said. “Russia was much more powerful when Ukraine looked like an independent country but was a kleptocracy that he could pull the strings on.”
Donald J. Trump, of course, couldn’t stop fawning over Putin or adopting Kremlin talking points when talking about Ukraine.
Still, on April 11, the Biden administration sounded like a weak and warmed-over Obama administration by not clearly spelling out tough sanctions against the Kremlin to deter further aggression. “If Russia acts recklessly or aggressively, there will be costs, there will be consequences,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Meet the Press to a highly skeptical Chuck Todd, according to the transcript.
The great guessing game now is whether Putin will launch an all-out offensive against Ukraine. I don’t know, probably not, but it wouldn’t surprise me for one simple fact: The West has not done enough to deter the Kremlin in the last seven years in his war against global democracy. So Putin probably thinks he can get away with destroying Ukraine, a country that most in the world still don’t know enough to care deeply about, and he’s probably right. The Western response still hasn’t evolved much beyond statements of deep concern and milquetoast sanctions.
Turkey is becoming a much more interesting ally for Ukraine all the time. Together, they are 120 million people strong. Both have been spurned in their desire to join the European Union, so have reasons to unite. Both have profound differences with Moscow. Zelensky has visited Turkey four times during his two-year-old presidency for very good reasons. Ankara is helping Ukraine build its military defenses, including by supplying warships and drones.
Yet, Turkey doesn’t support economic sanctions in general, justifying its stance by noting that it shares a border with Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, four nations that have or are or were under periodic sanctions from various Western nations.
While the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia, the measures have been far too weak to change Russian policy. The collective West refuses to go further, even though the Kremlin is still occupying 7 percent of Ukrainian territory seven years after its invasion. It would be good if Turkey joined in pushing for sanctions against the Kremlin too.
But Turkey rankled the Kremlin dictator enough with its very public show of support for Zelensky as Russia massed tens of thousands of its troops on Ukraine’s borders.
It looks like Putin’s last-minute phone call to Erdogan, on the eve of Zelensky’s arrival on April 10, failed miserably. The Turkish leader, admirably, could not be dissuaded from taking a firm and principled stance in support of Kyiv.
In a 20-point declaration that followed the Erdogan-Zelensky meeting, in point No. 14, Turkey expressed “support for the prospect of Ukraine’s NATO membership, in particular its intention to obtain a Membership Action Plan in the near future, and to note the desire to promote interoperability of the armed forces of Ukraine with the armed forces of allies.”
By contrast, France and Germany – two NATO allies that blocked Ukraine’s Membership Action Plan in 2008 – merely take note of Ukraine’s desire to join the 30-nation military alliance. Translation: Forget it, Ukraine, we don’t support your NATO bid.
The other 19 points in the Ukrainian-Turkish agreement are sure to give Putin high blood pressure or send him sulking to his $1 billion Black Sea mansion.
Point No. 1: To intensify joint efforts to deepen cooperation and coordination between the parties in the fields of economy, trade, tourism, security, defense industry, science, education, and youth.
Point No. 4: To continue to coordinate steps aimed at restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, in particular the de-occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as the territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
That’s why Ukrainians (and foreigners like me who are living here) should vacation more often in Turkey.
Citing Turkey’s high rate of COVID-19 infection, Russia suspended most flights between the nations from April 15 to June 1. It’s a pretty disingenuous excuse since the Kremlin has been known to downplay the coronavirus risk, even to the point of suppressing the true number of fatalities.
London-based analyst Timothy Ash also saw it that way. Erdogan “has sided with Ukraine and NATO against Putin, and is now paying the price,” Ash wrote.
Ash said the Kremlin move is a “big blow for Turkey given Russians are the largest single group of tourists into the country – 7 million in 2019, or 16% of the total, and providing $4-5 billion in annual tourism receipts. Even in 2020, 2.1 million Russian tourists still visited Turkey, despite COVID.”
Yet Ukraine was not trailing so far behind – with an estimated 1 million tourist visits to Turkey coming from Ukraine in 2020.
With a little more effort, Ukrainians and should do as much as possible to ease the financial sting from the loss of Russian tourists. Turkey has got it all as a tourist haven: history, modernity, mountains, and four seas – Black, Aegean, Mediterranean, and Marmara. It’s also got cheap and quick connections from all over Ukraine. Having vacationed in Turkey three times, I can testify to its charms and my eagerness to see the country again.
To borrow the official tourist promotion, Go Turkey!
