Erdogan sides with Russia again, this time on Belarus

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) - Last Sunday, Belarus forced an Irish airliner, Ryanair, to land in its capital, Minsk, while on a flight from Athens, Greece to Vilnius, Lithuania. On board was a prominent Belarusian journalist and dissident, Raman Protasevich.

Protasevich had played an important role in the widespread protests that followed last August’s contested election, in which Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko won a fifth term as president—an office that he has held for nearly 30 years, since 1994.

Belarusian authorities forced the Ryanair plane to land, claiming there had been a bomb threat—which, they said, came from Hamas. Hamas denied the charge, and it is not evident why Hamas would bomb an Irish carrier, flying that route. Although Hamas just fought a war with Israel, wantonly lobbing rockets onto Israeli cities, it has not engaged in conflicts with third parties, nor has it been involved in bombing aircraft.

Once the plane landed, Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were taken off the plane. The following day, on Monday, Belarusian state television broadcast a video in which Protasevich confessed, his face bruised, “to having organized mass protests.”

The US and Europe strongly condemned the Belarusian actions. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did the opposite—siding with Lukashenko and with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Above all, Turkey used its veto within NATO to “water down” NATO’s response, as Dr. Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish parliamentarian and Turkey Program Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote on Friday, describing it as “the latest case of collusion between Ankara and Moscow to undermine NATO.”

It also reflects a longstanding alignment between Erdogan and Lukashenko, as Erdemir explained, each leader supporting the other, as they adopted measures which contravened democratic norms.

Western Outrage: the EU, US, and G-7

Lithuania, Greece, and Ireland—the three western countries directly affected by the forced landing of the Ryanair flight—are all members of the European Union (EU), which responded with outrage to what it described as the “hijacking” of the plane. The following day, on Monday, it imposed sanctions on Belarus, blocking that country’s commercial aircraft from using the airspace of EU countries, while calling on their own airlines, as well as those of other countries, not to use Belarus airspace.

Similarly, US President Joe Biden issued a statement on the same day. He condemned “Belarus’s forced diversion of the Ryanair flight, traveling between two members states of the European Union, and the subsequent removal and arrest” of Protasevich, as well as the video that he “appears to have made under duress.”

The G-7—a group of seven of the most industrialized countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, as well as the EU—also denounced the diversion of the Ryanair plane.

On Thursday, the G-7 issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms the unprecedented action by the Belarusian authorities,” while they threatened further sanctions.

Turkey sides with Belarus and Russia

However, NATO’s response was weaker, although two of the three western countries directly affected—Lithuania and Greece—are NATO members (Ireland is not.)

Turkey is also a member of NATO, and, as Reuters reported, Turkey was responsible. Erdogan used his veto authority to weaken the NATO response. On Wednesday, NATO issued a statement, condemning the forced landing of the plane, but refrained from attaching any penalty to its statement, even though several countries had called for such measures, while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken strongly against the diversion of the plane.

“This is not the first time that the Erdogan government has played a spoiler role within NATO or come to Lukashenko’s aid,” Erdemir told Kurdistan 24. “In August 2020, when the European Council called Belarus’s disputed presidential election ‘neither free nor fair’ and refused to recognize the results, Erdogan was one of the first to congratulate Lukashenko, joining Putin and a few other authoritarian leaders.”

This, as Erdemir observed, is the latest reflection of a long-established relationship between Erdogan and Lukashenko. In 2017, the Turkish leader held a referendum to amend the constitution to give himself sweeping new powers and allow him to remain in office until at least 2029.

Erdogan’s “power grab” was widely criticized, Erdemir wrote. But “Lukashenko was one of the first to congratulate [Erdogan], claiming that the referendum would ‘contribute to further strengthening the sovereignty and independence of Turkey.”

The Russian-Belarus Alliance

Following the implementation of the EU’s measures against Belarus, only one border remains open to flights by its national airliner: the Russian border.

On Friday, Lukashenko traveled to Russia’s Black Sea city of Sochi for a two-day visit with Putin in his luxurious resort—even bringing along his son for the adventure.

The two leaders held formal talks on Friday, but the second day was informal, as Putin treated his visitors to a Black Sea yacht tour, during which they enjoyed dolphin-watching and other maritime activities.

Putin criticized the western stance against Lukashenko as an “outburst of emotion,” while Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov elaborated, stating, “From our point of view, the situation requires thoughtful and constructive consideration, with no hasty conclusions.”

Putin also promised to send Belarus the second installment on a $1.5 billion loan that Russia offered Belarus last year.

Other ways that Erdogan has undermined NATO

Erdemir concluded his report on Erdogan’s support for Lukashenko by noting the several ways in which Erdogan’s dealings with Russia have served to weaken NATO.

They include Turkey’s 2017 purchase of the Russian air defense system, the S-400, for which former President Donald Trump reluctantly imposed some sanctions.

“Similarly, Turkey’s cross-border operations in Syria have drawn criticism for strengthening Russia’s political and military footprint” in that country “at the expense of the United States and its Syrian-Kurdish-led partners,” as they continue the fight against ISIS,” Erdemir continued.

Noting that Biden would be meeting Putin on June 14, on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels, Erdemir suggested it would be a good opportunity to highlight for the Turkish leader “the basic tenets and values of the transatlantic alliance.” 

Editing by John J. Catherine