Normalization with Russia

Among the news flow about the heinous murder of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, one might easily have missed the point President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made about the Turkish-Russian normalization. The shooting dead of Moscow's ambassador in Ankara is a provocation Erdoğan said and he emphasized that that the provocation was designed to destroy Turkish-Russian normalization.

A cursory reading of this message might give the impression that the president was talking about reestablishing bilateral relations between the two countries after the fateful downing of a Russian aircraft near the Syria-Turkey border on Nov. 24, 2015. The official accounts of that event are still murky; whether the Russian aircraft really violated Turkish airspace will be better known in the coming months at the court hearings of members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). It has been claimed that information about the airspace violation had been manufactured by FETÖ members who later tried to overthrow the government and kill Erdoğan and his family in the July 15 coup bid.

The government noticed how terrible the consequences of the rift between Turkey and Russia could be and began to quickly restore the relationship. This is just a restoration of normal relations between two countries that restarted in June when Erdoğan expressed regret to Putin for the downing of the Russian aircraft. The Russian government later lifted the restrictions on travel, commerce, et cetera. This process is continuing; and the officials of both countries expressed hopes that bilateral relations will be even better in the near future.

Yet, there is another, perhaps larger normalization issue on the books in both countries. The diplomats, as well as the historians, have been looking for answers to the question of why two neighboring countries like Russia and Turkey have not had better relations since 1945? We are talking about two countries that share long borders, common neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan - and a huge - and almost - closed sea yet belonged to different - and hostile - military alliances and harbored contentious - if not combative - reflexes about each other for decades.

The effort to find an answer to these questions should bring the normalization that the two countries need. This normalization will wipe out many misconceptions the two nations have ingrained in their collective consciousness. Can anybody on this side of the Black Sea deny the belief they had that Russians always want to reach the warm waters of the Mediterranean (perhaps Moscow is too cold!) and in order to reach them Russia is ready to overrun Turkey? Can anyone on the northern shores of the Black Sea deny that they have been raised with the belief that Turkey has been the latchkey of the Atlantic Alliance to get them, and she is housing nukes aimed at Russia?

When the shadow cast on their relations 62 years ago is lifted both countries will be freer because truth frees countries as well as human beings. With this reconciliation will come better relations not only between the two countries but also all of Central Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus will breathe a sigh of relief.

And that will be the normalization of the century.