So, Turks and Russians.
For the ancient Slavs, the bear was sign of the strength traditionally. Even they hung over the talisman to baby-boy’s neck and he always carried it over him when he grown up. That mean was “he was healthy, strong and not afraid of anything”. So, the bear came as a symbol of Russia until today.
The other side, the wolf is symbol of Turks.
Turks’ history in Central Asia is very ancient. Nearly 4,000 years of their history has spent at there. And most common mythological element of them is wolf. Because, according to the myth, one Khan was found and raised by a female wolf. And Turks are always seeing equivalent themselves with the wolf figure. It is a fact unknown too much of the western world. Even in my opinion, Turks are most upset to what happened of the Stark family in Game of Thrones.:)
After these many explanations, on December 1, prior to Putin visit to Turkey, let’s look at his interview to the Turkish news agency Anatolian Agency.
Ahead of the state visit to the Republic of Turkey, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Anadolu Agency.
QUESTION: What specific objectives in political, economic and cultural spheres of Russian-Turkish relations will you set during the meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council? Why do the bilateral relations remain generally warm despite political differences in some regional issues?
VLADIMIR PUTIN…Due to the common efforts we took in recent years, our relations have been developing constructively on the basis of mutual confidence, good neighbourliness, equality and mutual respect of interests.
Together with President of Turkey Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan we are going to discuss the main issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation, including the implementation of strategic joint projects in the energy sector. We are going to review the results of our cooperation over the last year and outline future tasks. And of course, we will exchange views on key international and regional problems.
Turkey has been and remains an important foreign trade partner for Russia. In 2013, our bilateral trade turnover reached $32.7 billion. The accumulated Russian direct investments in Turkey exceed $1.7 billion, and similar Turkish investments in Russia are close to $1 billion. We are both interested in maintaining this positive trend…
…Over the recent decades, Turkey has been one of the countries most visited by Russian tourists. This is greatly facilitated by a visa-free regime for short term trips. Around 4.3 million Russians visited Turkey in 2013, while the number of visitors in January-September of this year already reached 4.1 million people. We expect that the announcement of reciprocal years of tourism in our countries will allow us to significantly increase the flow of tourists, and for our part, we will always be glad to welcome Turkish guests….
Due to such intensive multidimensional ties, Turkish–Russian relations remain stable, not depending on the current situation and maintaining continuity. Naturally, our positions on some issues might not be exactly the same or may even differ. This is natural for states carrying out independent foreign policy. At the same time and above all, we understand the importance of partnership between our countries and our peoples and a common desire to continue the mutually beneficial dialogue, which is highly appreciated by Russia…
QUESTION: What possibilities do you in Russia see for increasing trade between our two countries and what figures can be achieved?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: We highly value independent decisions by Turkey, including on economic cooperation with Russia. Our Turkish partners refused to sacrifice their interests for somebody else’s political ambitions. I consider that to be a really well-weighed and far sighted policy.
The position of your government opens up new opportunities for increasing bilateral trade. First of all, it allows the Turkish farmers to fill in the emerging niches on Russia’s huge food market. We welcome their intentions to export more meat, dairy and fish products, vegetables, and fruits to Russia.
Hopefully, together we will be able to increase our mutual trade and enhance the quality of investment cooperation for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and Turkey. We have already agreed with Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan that we can bring our mutual trade up to $100 billion (in 2013, it amounted to $32.7 billion)…
QUESTION: How do you assess the current state of affairs in Syria? Does Russia have any suggestions on how to speed up the settlement process in that country?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: The situation in Syria remains source of serious concern. And we are fully aware of the burden imposed on Turkey by the on-going violent conflict ravaging your neighbours. What is more, the main risk of further aggravation of the situation both in this country and in neighbouring states stems from the activities of the so-called Islamic State and other radical groups that were once actively employed by some Western countries, which flirted with them and encouraged them.
We consider the fight against terrorists and extremists in the Middle East and North Africa, including naturally Syria, a region struck by upheavals, a priority task for the international community. We are convinced that the efforts to deter this threat should be based on the UN Security Council resolutions, strict compliance with international law, the principles of state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of states in the first place. And what is important – this should be done transparently and without any hidden agenda.
We, for our part, will further support governments of Syria, Iraq and other regional states in countering extremists. On the whole, we believe it is important to address numerous regional problems comprehensively, based on an in depth analysis of threats existing in the Middle East and North African region in all their complexity. It is evident, for example, that the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict and the failure to settle the Palestinian problem are being employed by extremists in order to recruit new supporters, especially among young people…
And, yes, “A wolf and a bear can be friend with each other”.
For this, it is enough to look to 4,000 years history. Or we don’t look back that’s old. There is a monument in Taksim square- Istanbul- Turkey. That monument tells a lot. Two Russian generals are standing behind Ataturk, the father of Turks, in monument since 1928.
“How did we come to these days?” If one day this question would be asked to the US government, following response can be given.
British imperialism has been running for 250 years in this region. The all US governments, significantly after the World War II, undertook the task of carrying the flag of British imperialism in the region. This flag is a bloody flag. And all the people in the area know the pain of this flag. With the Truman Doctrine, you brought forward a religion against to an idea. (Green Belt project against communism) Two ideas can be discussed. However, you motivated a religious faith against to an idea. You have created the organizations (both religion’ and so-called political, who wants to democracy or freedom), and dozens war was experienced for this. Placing something an irrational against to an idea, you’ve betrayed both yourself and the American people. And we live today’s. Remember, an eastern proverb says that: “If you fired a weapon in the past, that bullet will turn back to you at the future.”
For full interview : http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23307#sel=
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