Ankara knocks down Paris, cancels claims
The issue is over

ANALYTICS  08 September 2022 - 10:46

Turkish diplomacy has again achieved another triumph, confirming Ankara's strong position in world politics. The visit of French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to Türkiye promised to be an act of pacification of Ankara on behalf of Europe, as she herself was announcing the visit in quite colorful terms. But it was exactly the other way round.

France's rather aggressive position in supporting Greece's actions in the Aegean Sea has in fact turned Paris into the main antagonist of Ankara's foreign policy for a long time now. The French foreign minister's visit to Türkiye was likely to take the form of discussions and the French side's assertive pushing through the two main issues. Judging by the scale of these issues, European countries have given Colonna, an ardent opponent of Türkiye, a special mission to tame Ankara's "ambitions". After all, Europe, as recent events have shown, is still unwilling to recognize Türkiye as a European power, seeing it as an important and authoritative, but still a "vassal" in the European "court." In general, it still wishes to talk down to the Turks. Erdogan does not share such views, to put it mildly, and advocates only a dialogue of equal value.

As for the main issues, there were, as already noted, two: the first about resolving the critical disagreements between Athens and Ankara, and the second, no less important than the first, about steering Türkiye as far away as possible from its cooperation with Moscow in the framework of the European sanctions policy. Using, as planned, all methods of influence on Ankara, up to the ultimatums.

On both subjects, Colonna had previously made some very formidable statements. For example, on September 6 the French foreign minister promised help to Greece and Cyprus if their national sovereignty was threatened.

The French minister announced her position following talks with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's statements about a likely harsh response if Greek provocations persisted "unheard of" and "reprehensible".

Colonna assured Dendias that France would support Greece in a possible conflict. "France has said it, and I repeat that it will stand with Greece and Cyprus if their national sovereignty is threatened," she recalled.

On the second issue, the French foreign minister was also categorical. She even demanded that it was time to put pressure on Türkiye, which allegedly acts in circumvention of the sanctions against Russia.

"Europe has adopted sanctions, so has the US, so have a number of allied countries and partners, but others have not adopted the sanctions policy, for example, Türkiye. It is important to ensure that countries that have not sanctioned themselves are not used as a platform to circumvent the sanctions adopted," said Madame Colonna, arguing that economic measures against Russia "work and will have consequences".

Moreover, she declared the goal of deterring Türkiye from such cooperation almost a keynote of her visit.

Reuters quoted a French diplomat as saying that Turkish companies and individuals were "tempted to work with Russia" and that Catherine Colonna was willing to discuss the matter in Ankara to prevent such practices.

But things have turned out differently. As the foreign media reported with some mockery, Colonna left the press conference with her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu without delivering the message, at least publicly. Instead, Cavusoglu went on the attack there, criticising President Emmanuel Macron and calling on France to protect its Muslim community from "attacks and xenophobia".

Colonna seemed only to amuse her counterpart and praise Ankara. For example, she welcomed Türkiye's contribution to reaching an agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain.

"I would like to congratulate my Turkish colleague on the successful conclusion of the grain agreement," she said. - These agreements are valid and we will continue to discuss them during our further conversations."

Apparently, the French diplomat decided to be careful not to escalate tensions with Turkey. According to some analysts, she was trying to avoid a repeat of the public spat that developed during a visit by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to Ankara in July. At the time Baerbock attempted to pressure Cavusoglu over alleged human rights violations in Türkiye and openly sided with Greece in a regional dispute provoking a harsh reaction from the Turkish foreign minister.

Colonna, on the other hand, as far as Greece was concerned, only said she discussed with Cavusoglu the increasingly heated war of words between the two neighbours, urging him to avoid "any escalation, verbal or otherwise". That was the end of the French diplomat's fervour.

On the other hand, Cavusoglu repeatedly returned to criticising Macron's actions. For example, he called Macron's comments last month during his visit to Algeria "unfortunate".

The French leader did say a lot of unnecessary things at the time, accusing networks emanating from Türkiye, China, and Russia of presenting France as an enemy and "immense manipulation". "Many political Islam activists have an enemy: France. Many of the networks that are covertly pushed - ... by Türkiye... by Russia... by China - have an enemy: France," he said.

Cavusoglu, by contrast, was restrained and constructive at the press conference, deftly finding solutions to the situation.

"It is not right to see Türkiye as a competitor," Cavusoglu said. "If France is finding it difficult to go back to some African countries, we can help France, because Türkiye is a trustworthy partner.”

All in all, on the outcome of Colonna's visit, we can say that Türkiye has given France a real political knockdown, completely disarming Paris with both objective criticism and useful, partnership proposals. In that sense, Madame Minister was clearly incapable of issuing any ultimatum rhetoric against Ankara, pretty much agreeing with everything Cavusoglu said. After Colonna's trip, one can at least say that the expectations of Greece, which had been very successful in solving its problems by shifting them to more authoritative countries in Europe or even the US, have now been noticeably nullified. In summing up the negotiations, it can be stated that Ankara has once again proved that it could dictate its fair policy, have its own point of view on events in the region, successfully resist pressure and disarm any ultimatum rhetoric of the whole front of forces represented by Europe and the USA, not worse than other world-leading countries.

The position of France with its new-found "holy mission" to restrict Türkiye from any cooperation with Russia was even more failed. The position is clearly rough and does not even look at the situation from the outside to get into the needs and interests of the countries in the region, including Azerbaijan. Europe's position is not surprising, it often turns out to be one-sided, if the interests of the EU and the US are not affected. But others, for some reason, have to bend to those interests.

Yet Colonna has had opportunities to put a bit of pressure on Ankara. For example, at the end of August, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo sent a letter to the Turkish authorities warning of the possible risk of sanctions against Turkish companies if these companies establish relations with Russian entities and individuals under sanctions.

But even with this support, the French foreign minister was clearly wary of raising the issue publicly with Cavusoglu, which suggests some far-reaching conclusions about Europe's willingness to turn a blind eye to Turkish-Russian cooperation after all.

Generally speaking, the issue of the so-called secondary sanctions, which the EU and the US have been threatening all of Russia's partners with since this spring, appears to be closed for good. Even if the US dares to impose some targeted sanctions, Europe will probably not join them.

In a sense, it is getting easier for Azerbaijan, which also has quite close economic ties with Russia. At that, it is obvious that Azerbaijan may be satisfied now in the case of the full-scale launch of the North-South corridors, and especially the Zangazur corridor, where Russia will certainly be one of the main consumers of transit. If Türkiye, one of the main lobbyists of Zangazur, has gained special immunity against any sanctions, Azerbaijan should not be particularly worried about it.

Caliber.Az