Turkey and Russia’s Proxy War and the Kurds

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet has resulted in dramatic changes between those two states. But while it was an extraordinary development, both countries had already been heading in different and opposing directions in foreign policy. The Arab Uprisings created critical problems that made the regional setting unworkable for Turkish-Russian rapprochement. Since the first day of the Syrian crisis, Ankara’s key strategic priority has been to keep the Kurds from becoming an autonomous political body in Syria. Russia, meanwhile, has created a de facto safe zone for the Kurdish groups against Turkish air operations and rapidly become an important stakeholder in Kurdish politics.Turkey and Russia are now in a proxy war in Syria that has cemented Turkey’s return to the NATO camp.