Contrary to several recent reports that Tayyip Erdogan has offered his services as mediator in the current war between Russia and Ukraine, a well-informed source in Istanbul told Newsmax that the Turkish president won't be involved because of his indebtedness to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"If it wasn't for Putin, perhaps Erdogan would do something," Cansu Camlibel, former Washington D.C. correspondent for the venerable Turkish publication Hurriyet, told Newsmax on Saturday. "But Putin has done so much for him — a lot of which we don't know about — and that means Erdogan can't get him upset. So there's really no chance Erdogan will mediate."
She specifically pointed to Turkey's purchase of S-400 defense systems from Russia, which was made over the strong objections of the U.S. The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the defense industry of NATO member Turkey for the purchase from Putin.
"It was reported that [the Turkish government] paid $2.5 billion for the S-400s, and we all learned about it when the deal was made public in July of 2019," said Camlibel. "We don't know any of the details in the negotiation of the purchase and don't know what [Erdogan] promised Putin during the negotiations."
On Friday, Erdogan said there was no going back on Turkey's acceptance of the S-400s and called the purchase "a done deal."
Camlibel also noted Erdogan had trade ties with Russia and had joined Putin in supporting the embattled government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
"There's no transparency [in the Erdogan government], so there may be more ties we don't know about," she told Newsmax. "But he won't be mediating because he just can't afford to get Putin mad."
After returning to Istanbul from Washington in 2019, Camlibel became editor of the publication Duvar English and now teaches at the university level.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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