"The Russo-Turkish Lesson
Ghassan Charbel Al-Hayat 2004/12/4
The Arabs ought to pay attention to an event. When the Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Turkey, in a first-of-its-kind official visit for a Russian president there, a long page in history is turned over. The framework of this historic visit is crystal clear; neighborly relations, cooperation, and mutual interests.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the visit is consecrating the exit from the effects of history, the wounds of the past, and previous roles. If both parties had given in to the near and distant past, the visit would have never happened. The history of relations between Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire needs no elucidation. It is a history of mutual fears, bloody clashes, and facing barracks; just as it was during World War I. In the second half of the last century, relations between the Soviet Union and Turkey included the likelihood of conflict and exchange of blows. The Red Army looked anxiously on Kemal Ataturk's inheritors who went with NATO, which used Turkish soil to get close to Lenin country; especially after the fall of the Shah of Iran."
More:Dar Al Hayat
