Even by Vladimir Putin's standards for embarrassing his foreign counterparts, his treatment of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday was a spectacle — and not a good one for the Turkish president.
Meeting Putin in the aftermath of a recent Syrian airstrike, which killed 34 Turkish soldiers, Erdogan might have been expected to take a tough stance with the Russian leader. Or at least a harder line than his submissiveness of past.
After all, Erdogan knows full well that Russia authorized Bashar Assad to carry out the attack which killed his soldiers. The Russians knew his forces were in the strike location before the attack began. Putin is ultimately responsible for the bloody strategic context here — namely, the Assad-Iran-Russia axis offensive in Syria's Idlib governate. In stark breach of cease-fire agreements with Turkey, the axis's offensive (and its deliberate targeting of schools and hospitals) has sparked a refugee exodus to Turkish borders.
So, yes, Erdogan had good reason to play hardball in Moscow. Instead, he decided to lick Putin's boots.
"I would like to once more give my condolences for the death of your soldiers in Syria," Putin began, without even looking Erdogan in the eye. He continued with a vintage show of Chekist dark humor, "This is always a big tragedy." Then, the former KGB lieutenant colonel jumped to the central lie. "Unfortunately, nobody, even the Syrian military, knew about their whereabouts." And Putin added, "Syrian soldiers have also suffered."
Any leader with a basic sense of self-respect or national honor would have interrupted Putin here. As I say, Erdogan knows that Putin knew where his forces were. He knows that those forces were targeted with Putin's approval. Putin's words were thus an insult to all Turks.
Erdogan responded by staring blankly at Putin, offering not even a hint of anger. Putin had won.
Amazingly, Erdogan then decided to make himself look even weaker, and he succeeded.
He offered an excuse as to why the meeting was being held in Moscow and not Ankara, even though he had requested the latter. Erdogan knows that the meeting is in Moscow because Putin wanted the image of Erdogan coming to pay homage and beg for a compromise. But rather than sidestep this issue, the Turkish president said he had only accepted Moscow due to Putin's constitutional changes. It would be laughable were it not so pathetic.
It was always a danger that Erdogan would allow Putin to play him yet again, but this is really something to behold. The United States and Turkey's other NATO allies were ready to consolidate his position against Putin's pressure. Coordinated economic action could have brought Assad to heeland forced Russia into an Idlib retreat.
But Erdogan couldn't stomach going eyeball to eyeball with Putin. Faced with the KGB man, he buckled. Ataturk must be turning over in his grave.
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