TEHRAN (FNA)- Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm newspaper, underlined that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has no option other than changing his policies towards Russia and Syria.
"Erdogan has reached a deadlock and his policies in the region have been fully defeated," Atwan said on Tuesday.
He said the new Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yildrim, has underlined that his government's policy is based on reducing the enemies and increasing friends, and "it has been under such conditions that Erdogan was forced to apologize to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and meet all Russia's demands".
Atwan also pointed to the recent agreement between Turkey and Israel, and said, "If Erdogan wants to help Israel pass its gas pipeline to Europe via Turkey, it is like playing with fire once again and repeating the past mistakes."
Russia’s relations with Turkey strained in November 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24M Fencer aircraft with two pilots aboard, claiming the fighter jet had repeatedly violated the Turkish airspace.
Moscow dismissed Ankara’s claims, saying the plane was brought down inside Syria, where Russia has been conducting combat sorties against Takfiri terrorists since late September 2015 upon a request by the Damascus government.
Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of sanctions on Ankara, including import restriction on Turkish foods, a ban on tourist travel to Turkey, an embargo on hiring Turkish citizens in Russia, and a ban on Turkish organizations' activities in Russia.
