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rfmcdonaldCBC's Trinh Theresa Do takes a look at reasons for Turkey's relative quiet. While Turkey might be concerned for the fate of Crimean Tatars and be worried at the prospect of Russian expansion on the north shore of the Black Sea in Ukraine, domestic issues are taking priority.
Turkey has echoed the prevailing Western sentiment, calling for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and for Ukraine's territorial integrity to be respected — but that was before the Crimean referendum, which directly impacted the Tatar minority (ethnically related to the Turks).
The indigenous Tatars, which make up 12 per cent of the population in Crimea, have a history of strained relations with ethnic Russians in the region. They were expelled from Crimea by Joseph Stalin after the Second World War and only began to return in the 1980s.
They fiercely opposed the annexation of Crimea, fearing a return of Russian rule. The Tatars boycotted the referendum, which ultimately resulted in the Crimean peninsula being parcelled off to Moscow.
Since then, Turkey has kept tight-lipped, largely due to domestic reasons, according to experts.
"We’ve seen the Turkish government be very quiet on this because Russia's a very important trade partner,” said Bessma Momani, an associate professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Russia is Turkey's main import source —about $26 billion worth in 2012, with natural gas alone accounting for about $12 billion of the total. Russia also supplies nearly 60 per cent of Turkey's energy demand. Last week, Turkey agreed to bring in more Russian gas through its Blue Stream pipeline, which enters via the Black Sea.
Turkey, already fraught with domestic woes, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's failed Twitter ban to silence a corruption scandal that spawned a rash of violent protests, has enough on its plate, with the presidential election looming in August. Any disruption of energy supplies or cost at the behest of the West could have serious political implications.
“They basically don’t want to rock the boat that way,” Momani said.
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