Analyzing The Turkey-Russia Conflict & NATO's Position

What You Need To Know:

✓ Turkey did not take Ukraine’s side during Ukraine’s conflict with Russia;
✓ Russia and Turkey have significant trade relations, both in tourism and goods/energy;
✓ Turkey is a member of NATO and can call on other NATO countries for military assistance if it is attacked;
✓ Turkey controls the Bosporus Strait and therefore entry of ships into (not out) of the Black Sea.

Hanna Shelest, Ukraine Analytica Editor in Chief discussed the geopolitical ramifications of the conflict between Russia and Turkey. “Definitely the crisis of the Russia/Turkey relations will have quite a serious impact on the whole of regional affairs… Turkey was always trying to balance between Russia and Ukraine. But Turkey showed very clearly that NATO is first, and Russia is second. For Ukraine it means we need to use our chances, it’s a window of opportunity to get closer to Turkey, to explain where our interests coincide.”

“We had the Turkish call for extraordinary meeting of NATO. Over the evening they had this meeting in Brussels and they had a talk about the situation… and what is even more important is that they trust all the information that Turkey provides, and that they will proceed accordingly with this information… it was perfect from the procedural point of view.”

Hanna Shelest spoke with Hromadske's Ian Bateson and Natalya Humenyuk on November 29, 2015.