ANKARA (Realist English). The hero of the Roman mythology, the ruler of all possible entrances and exits, the two-faced Janus is depicted with two faces that are directed in opposite directions. It unites, in addition to the past and the future, two other beginnings: the bad and the good.
The expression “two-faced Janus” has long turned into a phraseologism that is used to describe a hypocritical person who demonstrates duplicity and insincerity.
But today the two-faced Janus has a serious competitor. His name is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
If we follow through what the Turkish president is trying to achieve foreign policy decisions, we are confident that all the achievements of his country have become possible in a situation of playing on the contradictions of other powers: between Russia and the United States, the European Union and Russia, Israel and Iran, etc.
It was due to this that Ankara gained serious freedom of maneuver in Syria, Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh, and in the Ukraine Erdogan even proposed to make Turkey an intermediary between the two countries to preserve peace in the Donbass.
Sweet speeches about peace and cooperation get along in one person, and at the same time, with open hostility, bellicose rhetoric and outright military actions.
Hating the West, he has been trying to bring Turkey into the European Union for more than 20 years.
Hating Israel and accusing it of all sins, supporting Hamas terrorists, he actively advocates the development of friendly bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel.
Hating Russia, arming Ukraine with his drones, he seeks to extract as many political and financial dividends from Russia as possible.
By establishing relations with Greece, Syria and Armenia, he claims Greek territories, conducts attacks in northern Syria and participates in the military conflict against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, without recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
When I hear from the mouth of President Erdogan: “We are for world peace,” I for some reason remember the pun of the KVN team from Armenia: “We need world peace, we need world peace, we need the entire world!”.
Alexander Tsinker is the Head of the ICES International Expert Center
