OREANDA-NEWS 

At the end of last week it became known that Turkey strongly opposed the harsh formulation of the Alliance's position on the incident with the European plane.

The suitable statement did not include sanctions against the official Belarusian authorities, which allies from the Baltic countries and Poland insisted on.

Ankara has ensured that any mention of support for new sanctions against Belarus and calls for the release of political prisoners were excluded from the text. Occidental observers concluded that the Turkish position was stipulated by the desire to keep relations with Moscow, with which Ankara is cooperating on the purchase of air defense systems.

In fact, the Turkish position is determined not by relations with Moscow, but by relations with Minsk in the field of military-technical cooperation. Judging by the nature of the public communications of officials of the two countries, at the present time or at the stage of discussion or at the stage of implementation, there are several projects that are of great importance for the Turks.

This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that even the difference in the approaches of the two sides regarding the wars in Syria and Libya did not affect the Belarusian-Turkish relations.

Taking into account the reverent attitude of the Turks to the issues of national prestige and their international status as a regional power, Minsk's support for Ankara's rivals should have caused the latter's tough position on the Belarusian issue. And if this did not happen, then the Turks really need the Belarusian regime.

The specificity of cooperation in the field of security is such that most of its areas are hidden from the eyes of an outside observer. And in Belarus, where there is absolutely no civil control over this area, one has to operate with hypotheses, not facts.

 So Turkish motives for softening NATO's statement remain unclear.