A once promising relationship met its abrupt end November 24th. In a matter of minutes – or quite possibly seconds – Russia and Turkey’s burgeoning friendship is back to a perhaps more familiar Ottoman era iciness. Pragmatism will likely prevail, but emotions will define the relationship – energy and political – in the short- to medium-term. Planned provocation or defense of its national borders, Turkey’s downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber is a puzzling, if ultimately unsurprising, assertion of its national interests in the increasingly international conflict in Syria. In short, and quite simply, Russia and Turkey have little common ground in the region...
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