News Analysis: Turkey signals thaw in soured relations with Russia

With new government having secured a fresh mandate from the parliament, Turkish analysts welcome positive signals for a change in its foreign policy, specifically with Russia, its northern neighbor.

"Ankara should seize on this opportunity to mend the fences with Russia, an important country in protecting Turkey's overall interests in this region," Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, professor of international relations at Gazi University, told Xinhua.

Ties between Ankara and Moscow soured after Turkey downed a Russian warplane on Turkish-Syrian border in November, triggering a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Russia has imposed a series of economic sanctions on Turkey, including travel ban, suspending visa-free regime, freezing plans to build a new pipeline to carry Russian natural gas to Europe via Turkey.

Ankara has not taken retaliatory economic measures, avoiding from escalation already tense situation, but did not shy away from resorting to harsh diatribe against Russia.

In a surprise remarks on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wanted to improve ties with Russia and lamented that relations between the two countries were sacrificed over what he called "a pilot error."

He said he did not understand what kind of "first step" Russia was expecting of Turkey to take to repair the soured ties.

Turkish president's remarks came after the country's new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed to increase the number of friends for Turkey, decrease enemies. His statement was interpreted as an harbinger for changes and adjustments in Turkish foreign policy.

Moscow was quick to respond to Erdogan's remarks with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeating on Wednesday the list of demands asked of Turkey by Russia.

He said Moscow is still waiting for Turkey to issue an official apology and to pay compensation for the incident. Russian officials have also demanded in the past for the punishment of those responsible for shooting down the jet.

"Perhaps Russia has changed a little on its tone in the recent statement of President Putin in Athens, but it did not change its demands. It expects apology and compensation," said Suat Taspinar, prominent Turkish journalist who worked on Turkish-Russia relations for 20 years.

"Provided that there is a political will to normalize ties on both sides, I'm sure diplomats on both end are capable of producing a solution that will be acceptable to both countries," Erol underlined.

Asli Aydintasbas, another Turkish expert on foreign policy, says Turkey feels compelled to make overall changes in its foreign policy and relations with Russia play an important part in that new strategy.

On Tuesday, Moscow appeared to have raised the stakes before normalizing ties between the two countries by asking Turkey to withdraw troops in Iraq.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq is "an absolutely unacceptable position," endorsing the official position held by Baghdad federal government.

Turkey has been maintaining troops in a base near Mosul province to train local forces including Arabs and Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State (IS) militancy. It claims their presence was justified according to the deal reached by both countries.

Moscow has also accused Turkey of providing illegal arms and logistical supplies to the IS in Syria, even implicating Turkish president's family members with involvement of oil smuggling in Syria.

According to Ibrahim Karagul, Turkish expert, it is now necessary for Turkey to soften its approach to Russia.

But he underlined that Ankara is distant to the idea of offering an apology and compensation for the time being.

"Do not expect any improvement in the short run (on ties with Russia)," she warned, however, adding that an improvement on Turkish-Russian ties will come after anticipated changes in Turkey's Syrian policy.

"Since the vase was crashed, it will be fixed sooner or later, but will never be as it was," said Cenk Baslamis, lecturer of Istanbul University, the former correspondent in Moscow for more than 20 years.

"Because the two countries have hardly managed to build a mutual confidence in the past. This confidence was harmed," he added. Endit