Everything’s okay – Erdogan has apologised

Russia and Turkey have been at daggers drawn since that incident last November – you remember don’t you? Well, don’t.

President Ergodan has written a letter of apology and had a telephone conversation with President Putin, who instantly ceased to regard the Turkish leadership as the devil incarnate.

Russians were asked to change their way of thinking in an equally short time. The Kremlin simply preferred to forget that for the last seven months the state propaganda machine has been churning out regular information to the effect that Turkey was involved in international terrorism and in oil trade deals with Islamic State.

Flashback: on 24 November 2015, a Turkish fighter plane brought down a Russian SU-24, which had been on a bombing raid over Syria. The pilot died, and then a marine from the rescue crew. The incident gave rise to a flood of accusations from both sides: Moscow said that Russia had been stabbed in the back in Syria while Ankara maintained that the Russian plane had entered Turkish airspace. Seeing that there would be no apologies, President Putin banned Russian tourists from holidaying in Turkey, restricted food imports from there, and introduced a raft of sanctions meant to demonstrate that relations between the two countries could never be the same again. But now Erdogan has apologised …

Perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Cold with fury, resolute, President Putin made a series of announcements indicating that there could never be – absolutely never be – any reconciliation. To the Federal Assembly he said: “We know that Turkey is filling its pockets and allowing terrorists to earn money from the sale of oil it has stolen in Syria … By killing our people they have committed a heinous war crime, so if anyone thinks that they will be let off with some measures relating to tomatoes and restrictions on construction or other spheres of activity, then they are sorely mistaken. We shall keep reminding them what they have done and they will keep on regretting what has happened. And we know what has to be done.”

Soon everybody was falling over themselves with their rhetoric. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, for example, was not content to just hurl tomatoes; he was positively biblical: “We could take Turkey out with a nuclear missile strike. It would be very easy to destroy Istanbul: one nuclear bomb in the gulf, the city would be washed away by a terrible flood with a column of water 10-15 metres high and the city of 9 million would be destroyed.” But now Erdogan has apologised …

Putin declared to members of the Russian government that, “We have received a letter from the president of Turkey and decided to start normalising relations with our Turkish partners … I should like to start with tourism: restrictions are lifted and I shall be asking the Russian government to start restoring trade and economic relations with Turkey.”

So it would appear that Turkey has indeed got off for the price of a few tomatoes.

And where the president leads, the foot soldiers will follow. Vladimir Zhirinovsky now sees Turkey somewhat differently. “Whatever the historical incidents that have taken place, it’s better to be on good terms with one’s neighbours.”

Not to be outdone, Dmitry Medvedev underwent a similar metamorphosis. In November 2015, the prime minister described the Turkish government’s military action as “senselessly criminal,” but seven months later, Mr Medvedev has been blinded by all that Turkish sunlight. “We in the government will hold talks with our Turkish partners at any level which they see fit … We’re talking about giving Russians who like holidaying in Turkey the chance to do this in the current season.”

And it’s worked! Turkey has once more – quicker than you can lay a towel on a sun lounger – become the most popular tourist destination for Russians.

Not everybody, however, has bought this new line, and unthinkingly taken the next flight to Antalya. For an idea of what ordinary Russians are thinking, there is always the blogosphere.

Petrovich: “Hurrah, hurrah! Victory! Erdogan will now understand that you don’t tangle with our lads. Onwards and upwards with Turkish tomatoes!”

OlegCh: “So? Now the ‘main sponsors of terrorism who are buying IS oil’, as has been drummed into us over the past six months, are our best friends again? The general party line [a feature of communist politics] has taken another turn and this has been adopted unquestioningly by 86% of the population. Watching two rats trying to get out of the corner they’ve painted themselves into is actually quite funny.”

Funny indeed. What if, though, the population never really believed all that much in the “cold war” with Turkey? Perhaps, despite the efforts of the propaganda machine, they didn’t bear a grudge against Turkey, and simply rushed for the seaside at the first opportunity? Was this a triumph for the Kremlin propaganda machine – or a failure?