Turkey-Russia ties to lead to regional collaboration: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Bill Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review, to discuss the importance of normalizing bilateral relations between Turkey and Russia.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: It seems that Ankara and Moscow have decided to wipe the slate clean?

Jones: This is extremely important. It represents a direction towards, I would say, Eurasianist direction away from thorough cooperation with Western Europe and the United States and more towards cooperation with the regional powers in dealing with a number of issues, first and foremost with the danger of Daesh or ISIL and the cooperation of course is extremely important.

Russia has played a major role to the extent that they intervened in the Syrian situation, has really kind of turned the tide against ISIL and still a big problem resulting here but I think that the cooperation between Turkey and Russia will extend also to other countries in the region and will lead to the type of regional collaboration, if not coalition, which can effectively deal with the military problem on the ground and then after that I think also will lead to the type of economic cooperation which will help to resolve long-term some of these problems facing the region.   

Press TV: The cooperation between Turkey and Russia can surely prove crucial in the battle against terrorism in Syria. Do you see this as a U-turn of Turkey’s policy with regards to the terrorists and to the issues of Syria as a whole?

Jones: Well I think absolutely it has been. I think the attempted coup is still very unclear in the extent that who was involved but obviously created a major earthquake in the political eras in Turkey and it was, I think, aimed at eliminating or even killing the Turkish President. Obviously there has been a lot of rethinking on that, that combined with the fact that relationships with the United States have been very tense over recent periods and that the conflict that has been created between Turkey and Russia also had very serious implications for the future of both countries, there was simply a reevaluation that they felt, well, not turning their backs entirely on Europe, it is no longer the forefront of becoming a member of the EU or showing how strong they are within NATO but they want to forge new relationships with countries in the region and it is not only with regard to Russia but there is also a certain rapprochement with Iran and other countries and I think this is extremely important because peace in the region cannot be resolved simply by intervention from outside of region by the United States, by European forces, by NATO. It has to be a result of cooperation by the regions and the nation.

Perhaps the United States could be helpful if the United States stopped the demonization of Putin and began to cooperate ..., that would not be a problem but at this point there is no interest in doing that or not much interest in doing that so that what Turkey has done in this shift has really strengthened the coalition that militarily has been moved in most decisively against ISIL and I think it bodes very well for the future in the region.

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