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The article “The Russia-Turkey Relations: Strategic Partnership or Strategic Rivalry?” by Nadezhda Arbatova is published in the issue Policy Paper #4/2018 (Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs, University of Nicosia).

The Russia - Turkey relations are central for stability and security in the Black Sea - Mediterranean region. Everybody remembers too well how the incident with the downing of the Russian warplane near Syrian border in November 2015 brought  Russian-Turkish  relations  not  only  to  the  rupture  of  their economic and trade ties, but to the point of direct collision. That incident between Russia and NATO’s ally created a risk of a new conflict in the region already on fire of local wars. It took almost a year to repair the deep breach in the bilateral relations. As Huseyin Bagci, Professor at the Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University in Ankara pointed out, “Turkey and Russia will create a new page in their history, they will be much  more  careful  in  the future  not  to  disturb  their  relations  because  of these types of events and there will be more negotiation mechanisms” (Bagci,  2016). However the  best  intentions  and  goodwill  recede  into  the background when the national interests of partners are involved. A deeper analysis  of  the  Russian-Turkish relations  suggests  the  existence  of  those serious problems and even paradoxes that do not have an easy solution or solution as a whole.