When the former G20 summit, composed of the twenty richest countries in the world, was held in Turkey, it became clear that Turkey's presence on the international stage, and that of its leader President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had reached its peak with the global summit where Turkey displayed meticulous organization and significant bilateral steps were taken by member countries.
However, at the latest G20 summit in China, Turkey has proven itself to have the most influence on world politics.
Having transferred its former role as a global power to the U.S., Russia has successfully formed a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean, the Baltic States and Europe by implementing key military strategies and turning to Syria and the Middle East.
In the face of the volatile nature of American policy on Syria, which holds up the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in vain and acts hesitantly with regard to the legitimate demands of Syrian opposition forces, Russia has successfully given the Syrian regime the kiss of life and gained successes in favor of the regime in every front of its military operations.
Although its influence in Syria seemed at the beginning a part of Iran's direct intervention in the Syrian civil war, Russia has restricted even Iran's zone of influence in favor of its own influence in Syria. In fact, Turkey appeared as the only country that had the capacity to put a challenge against Russia's widening influence in the Middle East. After the aircraft incident, Russia successfully disqualified Turkey from the Syrian game by closing Syrian air space to Turkey and cutting its channels with the Syrian opposition forces.
The breakdown of its relations with Turkey meant two things for Russia. On the one hand, Russia had hard feelings towards Turkey due to the downing of the Russian fighter jet that entered Turkish airspace on Nov. 24 last year. On the other hand, Russia reacted to NATO alongside Turkey as a significant member of the organization. Yet, it was rapidly seen that Russia's harsh discourses against Turkey had no genuine repercussions in NATO. It was as if the NATO was implicitly supporting the ongoing alienation between these two countries. In this respect, the Syrian civil war was a litmus paper for the reconsideration of the present alliances. Frankly speaking, a very complicated image of alliances has emerged since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in which one's allies and rivals are no longer precise.
Yet, Russia has grasped the fact that NATO did not support Turkey against Russia. Thus, Russia has reached the conclusion that NATO was content with the present tension between Russia and Turkey, which was in turn against the regional interests of both. Such a delicate understanding of the present crisis in the bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey has paved the way for the normalization of their relations. Apart from foreign politics and military strategies, the crisis had significant unfavorable repercussions for the economic relations between Russia and Turkey as well. The stagnation in Russia's economy and the weakening of Turkey's economy due to the increasing trend of regional conflicts rendered both countries intolerable for any further economic losses.
At the last G20 summit, the bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey were normalized after Turkey took a significant military step in Syria. Thanks to the meetings between Erdoğan and Putin, both Russia and Iran implicitly endorsed Turkey's military intervention in Syria.
Turkey's coming out of the attempted coup d'état of July 15 stronger and with the unwavering support of an overwhelming majority of the Turkish people for the government, democracy and civilian politics, have proven in the eyes of the whole world that Turkey's democracy is consolidated for good.
During the G20 summit, two leaders have come to the front of world politics: Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as U.S. President Barack Obama's election term will end in two months. The revitalization of the energy trade and the various bilateral agreements signed between Russia and Turkey have strengthened Turkey's image in global politics. The senseless coldness of the U.S. and EU member states towards Turkey after the attempted coup d'état were thus replaced by a respectful attitude thanks to Turkey's proactive role in the Syrian civil war and its diversified relations of alliances with many alternatives. In a word, the G20 summit proved that those two aforementioned leaders would continue to shape the world politics in the upcoming period.
