Turkey - Russia Round Table Meeting was Held

“Turkey - Russia Round Table Meeting“ was held on the 19th of October 2008 in Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM). Main discussing topics of the meeting were ‘Russia and Turkey’s Point of View for Global Issues, Energy, Financial Crisis, Turkey - Russia Bilateral Relations, Turkey and Russia’s Political Perpective in the Middle East Context, and Common Security Problems“.

The Chairman of TASAM Süleyman Şensoy, The Director of TASAM Dr. Engin Selçuk, Member of the Administrative Board of TASAM Dr. Necmi Dayday, Professor of the Galatasaray University, Professor of the Istanbul Trade University, Prof. Dr. Nadir Devlet, Professor of the Marmara University Doz. Dr. Esra Hatipoğlu, Professor of the Fatih University Doz. Dr. Ercan Sancak, Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Akimov, Turkey Representative of the Department of Middle East Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Zhibek Syzdykova, Professor of the Moscow State University Prof. Dr. Liana Matyunina, Turkey expert of the Department of Middle East Researches of the Russia Academy of Sciences, and the Expert of the Institute for Asian African Studies of the Moscow State University Anastasiya Matyunina attended the meeting.

The media showed great interest on the meeting, which was held between one of the most effective think tank organizations of Turkey, TASAM and Russia’s outstanding training institution, Moscow State University.

In the opening speech of the meeting, Chairman of TASAM Süleyman Şensoy stated that: “With the dissolution of USSR in 1991 and the September 11 of 2001, a new process of changing from a unipolar world system to a multipolar one has started. In this process, a big portion of the world’s economy has visibly slided to the Asia. This change of balance has brought about both political and economical reflection. The change of world balances in the multipolar environment forms the basis of global phenomenons. It shall take some time for this multipolarity to develop. Russia and Turkey’s foreign trade capacity has far exceeded that of Germany. After all Russia is a very important strategic partner for Turkey.“

Professor of the Galatasaray University Prof. Dr. Erhan Büyükakıncı stated that a new process started in Russia and Turkey after 1991, and Russia was damaged most from this new process. He said that Russia shared this process with Turkey and Turkey is so close to Russia in its economical traditions. Turkey Representative of the Department of Middle East Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Zhibek Syzdykova argued that there are Russian soldiers in the Middle East countries, and that is because of the needs of that countries. According to him, Kyrgyzstan is a week country and it cannot provide its own security. So “There was a land problem between China and Kyrgyzstan. While this problem was being solved, Kyrgyzstan lost some of it’s lands.“ He focused on the language problems of Turkish Republics, and he stated that Russian is the language spoken most in those countries, and that is because Russian population is high in them. He also stated that there are some problems between the countries of the region. For instance, there is a leadership fight between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Akimov mentioned about the history of Turkey and Russia’s military cooperation. He drew attention to the fact that Turkey is the first NATO member country to cooperate with Russia in military relations, and put forward the datas of cooperation areas between the two countries. He stated that, as a NATO member country, Turkey’s cooperating with Russia on military matters disturbs most of the Western countries, especially the USA. However, he says that Russia has the capacity to compete with Western countries on the matter.

Professor of the Research Institute for Eastern Countries of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Research Institute for Asian and African Countries of the Moscow State University Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Akimov made a speech on the perspectives of a cooperation between Turkey and Russia in the solution of global problems. “Russian population has started to decrease and get older ever since 1990. However Turkey’s situation is much more different. Even though Russia is 20 times bigger than Turkey, it has a population only two times more than Turkey. And this shows that Russia needs manpower. In order for investment programs to be implemented until 2020, 7 million new manpower will be needed. But for various reasons, Russia will annually loose it’s 1 million functional manpower. So it may need Turkey’s qualified workers. Chinese workers’ rushing into the Siberian region might cause a serious treat for the protection of Russia’s borders.“

He also mentioned about the “Blue Current“ project, and said that the projects seemed to be finished but it is not so easy to state whether Turkey and Russia are competitors or partners at the moment. He touched upon the subjects of the developments in Georgia, conflicts in the East and Southern East of Turkey and the risks on energy lines as a result of these.

Prof. Dr. Liana Matyunina stated that the world is going through a tectonic period on geo-economic relations as well as geopolitical matters. She stated that it has difficult to describe the current process through “old“ terms such as liberalism and monetarism. “In the new balances of the world economy, the Asia continent has started to gain power. A very big part of the world’s approximately 7 billion dollars-capital is owned by the Asian economy.“

The meeting ended with the committee’s presenting gifts to each other and with the votes of thanks.