Beyond Tomatoes: What Will Improved Bilateral Ties Mean for Russia and Turkey?

During the press conference, the Russian President noted, for his part, that the Russia-Turkey relations have attained a special status and been fully restored.

He also stressed that the sides had agreed on a comprehensive decision to cancel mutual trade restrictions during the Sochi talks. At the same time, he added that restrictions on visa-free travel and supplying of tomatoes from Turkey to Russia would remain for the time being.

Tuncay Tursucu, an expert on the Russian economy, specifically pointed out the significance of Putin's statement that Moscow and Ankara had finished normalizing relations.

"It is important that the process of normalizing bilateral ties has come to a close, and that the negative period in Turkey's ties also ended. The fact that the statement was made by Putin is also of importance," Tursucu said.

He added that the agreements clinched by the two sides during the Sochi talks "will give a green light to the positive development of events along with shifts in the political sphere."

"I do not believe that in the future the sides will seriously oppose each other on the Syrian issue, something that will be a more controlled process. All this will finally lead to the liberalization of the visa regime and the lifting of the ban on Turkish tomato imports," Tursucu said.

He was echoed by Alev Kilic, head of the Center for Eurasian Studies, an Ankara-based think tank, who remained upbeat about Turkish-Russian relations shifting to a higher level in the immediate future.

"High on the agenda was the normalization of relations which finally took place. Also, a very important political step was taken to facilitate the development of Russian-Turkish ties, with both sides reaching a consensus on the matter. The process of developing ties will possibly continue," Kilic said. 

For his part, Professor Togrul Ismayil of Turkey's University of Economics and Technology told Sputnik that the Sochi talks will further add to the expansion of economic relations between Turkey and Russia.

"In this regard, developing bilateral energy cooperation is of particular importance. In this regard, the Sochi meeting will contribute to the implementation of projects pertaining to the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and the Turkish Stream gas pipeline," Ismayil said.

Emphasizing that Turkey attaches great importance to strengthening economic ties with Russia, he recalled that "after the incident with the Russian aircraft, there were economic problems and restrictions on the import of certain goods" and that "many such issues have already been resolved."

"If the decisions adopted in Sochi do not encounter bureaucratic delays, a new stage will begin in the two countries' economic relations," he added.

Political analyst Volkan Ozdemir, in turn said in an interview with Sputnik that "Russia and Turkey reached an agreement on a spate of issues, including economics and energy."

"The meeting in Sochi indicates that Turkey and Russia may for the first time become strategic partners," he said.

Ozdemir also drew attention to the fact that apart from deals on the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, the sides also agreed on the S-400 missile defense systems. 

"This is a progress of both an economic and political nature because such a shift means that Turkey has, for the first time, begun to consider an alternative to NATO. By making this step, Turkey signaled its intention to get closer to Russia in terms of international relations. So the ties between the two sides may for the first time turn into a strategic cooperation," he pointed out.

Ozdemir also underlined the importance of the decisions made by Turkey and Russia on Syria, which he said indicates that Moscow and Ankara have reached a new stage in their relations.

At the beginning of 2016, Russia retaliated by imposing a number of restrictive measures, including a ban on charter flights, food and flower imports.
The countries' relations normalized in June 2016 after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the incident.

In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would gradually lift economic restrictions it had imposed on Turkey.

On October 10, Putin announced the removal of embargo on Turkish fresh and dried oranges, tangerines, peaches, nectarines, plums and sloes.

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