https://www.newsweek.com/turkey-erdogan-russia-crimea-ukraine-return-territory-war-black-sea-1952090
"Our support for Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence is unwavering," the Turkish president said.
They won't even return the occupied part of Cyprus. Honestly I'm surprised that Russia still didn't try to use that one for propaganda, since the Turkish claims are very similar to Russian ones and it's a wedge between two NATO members.
Turkey is considering joining BRICS. Putin has more to lose than he has to gain from provoking one of the more friendly NATO members.
Turkey drives wedges between itself and other NATO members on its own anyways. I don't think Russia pulling on that thread would do anything other than make Turkey less friendly to them.
It could even have the opposite effect and unify NATO a bit because who in the West gives Russia any credibility other than the far right?
And hand Trump over to the Kurds so they can show him their appreciation for his betrayal when he was President.
I believe Erdogan (and Turkey in general) were big players in getting the wheat trade deal settled, as well as the prisoner exchange, though I could be misremembering. It's just a weird situation of Erdogan having a history of centralizing power, but also making moves to be more relevant on the global stage.
Was Trump's performance so bad that it accidently set Erdogan straight? What next, Putin straight up dies from a heart attack over shock? Kim Jung Un, so disgusted in his bff Trump ends up giving up the dictatorship and surrenders?
Erdogan is like a child of divorced parents, always playing both sides but also manipulating both on any sign of weakness.
The Krim was a battleground between the ottoman empire and Russia multiple times over, most known as the Crimean war, but in Napoleonic times too.
His entire strategy on the global stage is to play both sides. The only difference between him and India is that India is not part of NATO.
But it would be unwise for him to do so. Now, it would be moral, but that's another story.
When you think about it, the primary reason for taking Crimea was because Russia needed a port to maintain its Black Sea Fleet. Now that the Moskva and most of that fleet have been upgraded to submarines in said Black Sea, do they still even need the port?
Once the straits are opened to all traffic, they'd just bring in more ships and need want it again.
How do we know that Crimea won't be completely Russified and it's Russian inhabitants wouldn't resist any attempts to return it to Ukraine?