Turkey and the Ukraine conflict: “Ankara has an important role”

Germany and its EU partners would do well to rethink and redesign their relationship with Turkey. That’s what security expert Christian Mölling says in the new edition of the star– s “Die Lage -International”. “Turkey is an important player in an otherwise very fragile region,” said Mölling. This applies to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, but also for Ukraine and the entire Black Sea region.

Ankara supplied Kiev early with drones, which negotiates important grain agreements for Ukraine and blocked the access of Russian warships to the Black Sea. “Turkey plays an important, sometimes constructive role for Ukraine from the beginning of the war,” says Mölling. Nevertheless, Ankara in Western European perception is “a completely undervalued player”. Mölling: “With a view to Ukraine and the defense of Europe, we are faced with the question: How do we deal with Turkey in the future?”

The security expert of the Bertelsmann Foundation pleads for a robust dialogue with Ankara. To pull together in Ukraine with Turkey does not have to mean that European criticisms are not held in Turkey with a view to human rights and lack of the rule of law. But: “The Europeans will surely have to listen to a lot from Ankara.” In view of the current events around the arrest of the Istanbul Mayor and Erdogan competitor Ekrem Imamoglu, it was also important to find a new middle ground in the mutual handling.

The escalation of the fighting between the Russian and the Ukrainian army in the days since Donald Trump’s two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin last Tuesday, the US government puts a uncomfortable location from Mölling’s perspective. “The war just goes on,” said Mölling. “For the Trump administration, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the story why everything is going positively now.”