Ankara plays a strategically important role for Vienna and the EU: as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv, but also in combating people smuggling.
Anyone traveling to Ankara for the first time is fascinated by the cosmopolitan modernity of the six-million-inhabitant metropolis in the middle of Anatolia. For several reasons, Austria attaches great importance to normalizing relations with the Turkish capital, which have been strained for years: Ankara plays a key role in the fight against illegal migration and terrorism and as a mediator in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Although a NATO state, Turkey has not joined the Western sanctions against Russia and has thus kept open the possibility of dialogue with Moscow. The country is in a kind of “hinge position,” said Alexander Schallenberg during his visit to Ankara yesterday. “This is about nothing less than avoiding an international humanitarian catastrophe,” emphasized the Foreign Minister in view of the delivery failure of Ukrainian grain caused by the Russian blockade in the Black Sea. This threatens food security in North Africa, which is why Schallenberg had traveled to Cairo the day before.
No “charm offensive”
The exchange with Ankara is “enormously important”. But he doesn’t want to hear anything about a charm offensive, the bilateral relations are “complex and in mutual interest”. He has “no problems” with Austria, confirmed the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, at a joint press conference.