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With Russia And Turkey Many Unforgotten And Unforgiving Stabs In The Back

 In the affairs of governments and nations the use of force is always influenced by myriad factors, including personalities, military intelligence and assessments, economic needs, political considerations and ideologies, perceived threats and, of course, earlier historical incidences. Therefore, the world should not be surprised at the Turkish warplanes which shot down a Russian SU-24 over northern Syria. To be certain, and in the words of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin who called the act a “stab in the back” carried out by “accomplices of terrorists, Turkey and Russia have a lengthy and paralleled history of stabs in the back, many unforgotten and unforgiving. Likewise, both nation states want to expand their spheres of influence after suffering from near collapses.
Currently, a major stab in the back for Russia and Turkey is terrorism. Russia, on the one hand, experienced terrorist attacks by Chechnyan insurgents during a bloody separatist war in the Caucuses. In fact, the unresolved conflict led to a series of bombing attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities. Clashes with Islamic militants from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan still exist, too, causing Russia to fear a spillover of violence that includes Turkey’s neighbor, Syria and ISIS. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire’s collapse evolved into a turbulent era for Turkey. Ethnic groups, Islamist revivalists, the Kurdistan Workers Party and Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front also employed terrorism. For Turkey and Russia, counterterrorism and fear of more attacks will be a top priority.
Russia’s and Turkey’s counterterrorist efforts, however, can devolve into “intervention traps” that lead to more stabs in the back as the Turkish downing of the Russian plane revealed. For example, Russia has been a strong ally with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, as has Iran. All three nations are committed to economic interests and projects in the region, including resisting Western imperialism. As for Turkey, managed under Western sponsorship and NATO – which includes Article 5 and collective defense – Assad and Syrian insurgencies pose a problem to the integrity of the Turkish state. At the same time, Turkey is concerned with Kurdish separatism in the region, even provoking ISIS and Kurdish fighters into battling each other while also bombing them.
As the last seat of the Ottoman Caliphate and natural center of the Middle East, Turkey also has a vast history of East-West alliances. Its Islamic renewal and neo-Ottoman dreams within the shadow of NATO and Europe will cause more unrest, specifically as Turkey backs the Palestinians at the expense of the U.S.’s “empire-and-half” (Israel and Saudi Arabia). Additionally, Turkey’s bid to be a major geopolitical player in the region is being derailed by Western, yet contradictory, democracy promotion and failed state-building. Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Yemen (and now Syria), for instance, is in the midst of sectarian cleansing, brutal civil wars and worse dictatorial regimes. Turkey and Russia will continue to struggle with the West’s pro-coup and anti-coup stabs in the back.
Other unforgotten and unforgiving stabs in the back against Russia and Turkey remain as historical analogies, even open wounds. Russia’s rejection of a possible entry into the U.S.-NATO alliance pierced Russian honor, as did U.S.-NATO’s expansion into Eurasia and Ukraine. Moreover, it evoked the Truman Doctrine and the West’s seizure of Turkey from pro-Russian communists. As for Turkey, Turkish Islamists never forgot how imperial Russia, France and Britain, in the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, dismembered the Ottoman Empire and abolished the Ottoman Caliphate after World War I. Not only was it perceived as a blow to the global ummah, but it caused resentment towards the partitioning and increasing secularization of the region.
It should also be recalled that before withdrawing from World War I, Russia backed Serbia and fought Turkish forces since the Ottoman Empire was aligned with Germany. Furthermore, Turkey blames the Armenian Genocide on Russian insurgencies and the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74, since Russia gained at the expense of the Ottomans and became protector of Orthodox Christians. The 1853 Crimean War, fought between Russia and the fading Ottoman Empire, was as well the latest of long-running stabs in the back between the two powers. The first shots were actually fired when a Russian navy sailed across the Black Sea and destroyed the Ottoman fleet at Sinope. Russia and the Ottomans, indeed, fought over the Black Sea as early as the 17th century.
For Russia and Turkey, stabs in the back have come from many different directions and at different times. Regarding the Turkish warplanes shooting down a Russian SU-24 over northern Syria, it would not be in the interest of either power to commit to another war. In reality, there are more serious stabs in the back that will be attempted by other imperial and expansionist states in the region and world. As the West continues to underestimate Islamic movements and insurgencies in the area while imposing its own brand of economic imperialism, a stable and secure Russia and Turkey is extremely important to regional security and global affairs, even necessary. They should also be cautious of punitive actions and “intervention traps” not of their own choosing.
With regards to the Crimean War, William Howard Russell, reporter for “The Times,” wrote: “For all I can observe, these men die without the least effort being made to save them.”(1) Russia and Turkey also consider the same before using force against each other.