Russia Makes Friendly Overtures Toward Turkey

Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday to congratulate him on the strong showing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had in elections over the weekend. The victory will enable the AKP to form its own government -- a surprise to most Turkey watchers, who expected the AKP to fail to secure a majority and another turbulent round of political negotiations to begin between the AKP and opposition parties. Moscow welcomes the election results because they clearly have given Russia a group within Turkey to negotiate with at a time when several crucial issues have complicated relations....