Ankara-backed campaign has fallen short of its aim to boost the recorded percentage of North Macedonia’s ethnic Turks to 6 percent.
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It was clear that the involvement of these fighters – known as the Kadyrovtsy (Kadyrovites in English) – was not only an operational reinforcement for Russia, opening the northern route to Kyiv, but also a propaganda tool designed to spread fear of the atrocities the Chechens might inflict on Ukrainians in their path.
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The Betrayal Of Ukraine
Ukraine was lured by the West for many years, but in its time of greatest need it was betrayed. Instead of protecting it militarily against the Russian invasion, the West has only been willing to engage the aggressor in economic warfare.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine incentivizes Berlin and Ankara to recalibrate their bilateral relations, but Scholz’s visit to Turkey isn’t the harbinger of a breakthrough.
A recently published academic article explains the nature of contemporary Bosnian-Turkish relations as a collision of myth and reality.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may create new fronts within Europe’s most fragile region. Throughout the Balkans, pro-Russian groups have eagerly awaited a Russian agenda that could topple current regional peace and security dynamics.
While Ankara’s relations with the West have soured in recent years, its relations with Moscow have come to a more stable footing. Nonetheless, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may cause Turkey to reassess its adversarial approach to old Western partners.
Europeanization had once been the starting point of Turkey’s relations with the Balkans, but over the last decade both have drifted away from the EU orbit. Ahmet Erdi Ozturk and Basak Alpan explain how and why on FeniksPod’s Balkan and EU Series.
EU inaction, stalled accessions, and government divergence from EU reform have created “stabilitocracies” in the Western Balkans. This poses a significant test for the EU’s role as a promoter of democracy in the region, says a recent report by the Netherlands’ Clingendael think-tank.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would pose significant risks to Turkey. Moscow’s potential exertion of economic, military, and political pressure on Ankara may also weaken a NATO response to the crisis, especially from the Black Sea.