We asked Turkish citizens a few questions about who is right and who is wrong in the incident with the Russian bomber.

So, our interlocutors answered the following questions:

1) Were the Turkish military right in their decision to shoot down the SU-24 aircraft?

4) How would you describe the reaction of Turkish society to the incident?

Here are the responses we received:

Hulya, 20, student from Samsun:

1) I believe that the Turkish authorities were right. Since Russia has violated Turkish airspace before.

Now there is no Daesh fighting in the region ( Arab. the name of ISIS - ed.), and the actions of the Russian bombers made no sense. Russia has joined forces with Assad for the same reasons as usual - to gain access to warm seas. But there is no terrorist threat in Syria, our fraternal people live there, so this is a very sensitive moment for us.

2) NATO has international influence, and Turkey wanted to inform NATO, since we are a member of the alliance, and this affects, among other things, the interests of NATO. Turkey wants support from NATO.

3) Putin's statement sounded very tough, but these problems will be solved. These are big dirty games, and the people here do not decide anything, we are just a faceless mass, we do not know much.

4) This is very hot news for us. There are a lot of Russians living in Turkey, and many more Russians come here as tourists. We are neighbors and we have a good relationship. I think that nothing will change in society - and I hope that political issues will be resolved through diplomacy.

Eylem, 18 years old, student, Istanbul:

1) Of course, a terrible and tragic thing happened, but there are some rules, instructions on how to act in such situations. We must study them before judging either side. Personally, I do not support any military action - I'm just trying to look at the situation through the eyes of politicians.

2) Of course, this is a normal reaction of the president. Common for such situations.

3) I don't know anything about it, so I don't want to answer.

4) Turkish society is very differentiated, however, in general, I do not think that anyone considered the actions of the Turkish military to be so wrong.

B., lawyer, 40 years old, Istanbul:

"Our bastards shot down the plane. Turkey is acting like an idiot. I would like Putin to give a lesson to our president. The United States is behind this. World War III is brewing."

Ekaterina Movsumova, publisher

Sergei Koritsky, who has worked as a diplomat in Turkey for more than six years, asked himself the question: what do Turks know and think about Russia and Russians? “What are the first three words, phrases, associations that come to your mind when you hear about Russia?” Among Koritsky's interlocutors are entrepreneurs and waiters, taxi drivers and policemen, artists, students and many others. The answers he heard were both familiar and unexpected and interesting.

Moscow. Very cold. Tourists. - Do tourists from Russia buy carpets? - Practically no ... - Do you want me to send photos by e-mail? - I don't have an email address. (Dogan Tudun, carpet shop clerk, 19 years old)

Aralov. Yesenin. Mamaev kurgan. - Why Aralov? - This is the first ambassador of Soviet Russia in Ankara. Along with Frunze and Voroshilov, he played an important role in the history of the Turkish Republic. Do you know Yesenin's poems? - "Goodbye, my friend, without a hand, without a word ...". When I was in Konstantinovo, I saw an autograph of this poem in the museum. Was very impressed. - Have you been to Volgograd? - Of course. I was also on Mamaev Kurgan. This is the place where the history of the world was made. We must not forget the cruelty of Hitler's fascism and the heroism of Russian soldiers. - It's a bit unusual to see your UAZ on the streets of Antalya with the image of the "Guard" sign on the door. - I love this car. I also have a white Volga, greetings from the 1970s, but it is not running, it is standing in the hotel courtyard under palm trees. (Aziz Dincher, hotel director)

Vodka. Beautiful girls. Visa-free regime for Turks. - Have you ever been to Russia? - No, but I really want to go. - Are you a musician? - Music is my hobby, I play in the bar in the evenings. And so I am a student, studying at the Faculty of Management of the Mediterranean University. (Mustafa Tümer, student, 26)

Moscow roads in five or six lanes. Pavel Bure. Maria Sharapova. - Roads in Moscow are really wide, but traffic jams remain... - Unfortunately, this is true, but it's still impressive. (Umit Gokdash, tennis coach, 41)

Literature. Rich story. Bargain. - Why bargain? - like to bargain. - Do you know anything from Russian literature? - I read Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground" four times. (Bulent Yshik, coffee shop manager, 28)

Snow (I came to Antalya from Germany three years ago, haven't seen snow since then, I miss it). Majestic historical buildings (never been to Russia, but I know). I also know that the Russian language is very difficult. - Why did you come from Germany to Antalya? - Fate, perhaps. - Satisfied? - Highly. (Eda Su Sezer, bar waitress)

Friendly people. Democracy. Decency. - Do Russians buy anything from you? - Yes, I have many buyers from Russia. (Atilla Bakhchivan, owner of a small shop, 60 years old)

My girlfriend. Vodka. Cold climate. - And here is your girlfriend? - She herself is from Georgia, but she speaks Russian. - Do you work somewhere? - Not yet, at the end of the year I'm going to serve in the gendarmerie. (Yusuf Durmush)

Vodka. Beautiful girls ... - More? - (in Russian) Go to boarding immediately. - ??? - I worked at the local airport for a long time, I will never forget these words. (Umit Chinar, 23 years old)

Lenin. Stalingrad. Gorbachev. - What comes to mind when you remember Gorbachev? - For some reason, his birthmark on his head always reminded me of a map of the island of Cyprus. (Onder Felek, restaurant manager, 29)

Nazim Hikmet*. St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky. - Have you ever been to St. Petersburg? - Yes, this city made a big impression on me. And in general: three words for Russia are very few. (Jan Emidzhi, member of the dance group "Fire of Anatolia", 40 years old) *Nazim Hikmet - a famous Turkish poet, lived the last years of his life and was buried in Moscow.

Our friendly country. Sochi. Red Army. - Have you been to Sochi? - No, but I watched the opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympics. It was great. - Why the Red Army? - I would like to see the performance of the Red Army Choir in Antalya. I also want to ask a question: do they shave with straight razors in hairdressing salons in Russia? (Sedat Gundogdu, hairdresser)

Kazan. Grey colour. Train. - Have you ever been to Kazan? - Not. - Why gray color? - That's how I feel. - Why a train? - About 30 years ago I watched a documentary about the Trans-Siberian Railway on Turkish television. I still remember. (Agyah Gargun, Antalya Harley-Davidson Club coordinator, 47 years old)

Hospitality. Mafia. Russian tourists - without them, our hotels and pockets would remain empty. - Did you go to Russia? - Twice, I lived in Moscow with friends, I really liked it. Have you seen the mafia there? - Not. (Bucky Kefes, taxi driver, 49)

Samara. Putin. Leningrad. - Why Samara? - My son is an engineer, he worked in Samara for some time. (Selçuk Sodim, 72 years old)

Dynamo Moscow. Volleyball player Ekaterina Gamova. Happy men. Why do you think Russian men are happy? - Because Russian women are beautiful. (Atilla Turkyilmaz, former physical education teacher, retired)

Kars*. Natural gas. Kremlin Palace. - Why Kars? - I served there. They say that Kars is very similar to the old Russian cities. Even today there is a lot reminiscent of Russia. - Do you want to wish something to your Russian colleagues? - I would like to wish the police in Russia, and in other countries, patience. (Osman Bashtug, police officer, 43 years old) *Kars is a city in the north-east of Turkey, in 1878–1917 it was part of the Russian Empire.

Benevolent people. Hospitality. Red Square, which we really want to see. - Do Russians come to your restaurant? - Yes, often, Russians are very fond of Turkish cuisine. (Muharrem and Sibel Iyioz, owners of the Beydagi restaurant)

Moscow. St. Petersburg ... - The third word? - (in Russian) "Come on!" (Buse Gundogan, member of the dance group "Fire of Anatolia")

Great country. Art. Freedom. - In your opinion, in Russia, people of art are free in their work? - I have many friends in Russia - artists, sculptors. I know that in their work they feel free. I will add separately: Russian sculptors are the best in the world. - Behind - is this your portrait? - Self-portrait. (Savash Altai, artist, 59 years old)

Russians are our friends. Snow. Nuclear power. - Why did you name nuclear energy? - The Russians are building the first nuclear power plant in Turkey. - Where are you from? - From Trabzon. (Ali Shahinkaya, cafe manager, 37)

Rich culture. St. Petersburg. Along with the US and the UK, the leading power in the world. (Ramazan Zerdali, restaurant worker, 25 years old)

Siberia. Borsch. The Kiev's cutlets. - Of these dishes, what do you cook most often in Turkey? - Sometimes we arrange a “Russian evening” in a restaurant, then we definitely cook Kiev cutlets. (Erkan Ashchi, 31 years old, Erdem Aryci, 32 years old, chefs)

Our good neighbor. Great civilization. The country I would like to visit. (Talat Aktash, sea taxi captain, 44 years old)

What do Turks think of Russians?

Selim Koru is a Research Fellow at the Turkish Economic Policy Research Foundation (TEPAV). Deals with Turkey's economic and foreign policy in Asia and the Middle East. Text: Selim Koru, WarOnTheRocks. Translation: Nikolai Ershov, "Sputnik and Pogrom"

The young man across from me leans back in his chair, stretching. "How many years have already passed, and now we shot down the plane." His eyes widen. “And this, brother, is the plane of the Muscovites!” He peers into the blue sky, smiles, imbued with this thought.

In the Turkish public consciousness, the word “moskof”, which refers to Russians, carries a pejorative connotation, but is not without fear. “Moskof” is not the same as “rum” (Greek): he is a former subject, sometimes bickers, but on the whole rather a whiny younger brother who is not allowed to be beaten. The Moskof does not look like an Arab either: the Bedouin is treacherous, but sluggish, and therefore there is no harm from him until the insidious Englishman starts inciting him.

No, Moskof has a special place in the pantheon of Turkey's enemies. He is a big furry beast, a threat to the Turk's home. And at times he lashes out at us with godless ferocity.

His first bite was in 1783 - then he destroyed the Ottoman fleet and took away the Crimea, where the Tatars lived, the Muslim and Turkic people. Over the next few centuries, provinces in the Balkans began to break away one after another, often with Russian support.

The Russians saw a historical mission in taking Constantinople, not only because they needed an ice-free port in the winter, but also because Constantinople - or Constantinople, as they call it - was the historical capital of their religion.

They would have taken him if Britain and France had not intervened. Concerned that Russia, feeding on pieces of the Ottoman Empire, was becoming too strong, they supported the Ottomans in the Crimean War in 1853 and barely managed to stop the tsarist army. The slow, painful decline of the Ottoman Empire ultimately has many different causes, but the Turks have not forgotten who started it all.

The First World War gave Moskof the opportunity to finish the job. He began to incite the Armenians - a Christian people oppressed by the Ottomans - to a full-scale uprising. This episode left marks not only on the opinion of the Turks about their neighbors, but also on their idea of ​​themselves. During World War II, the rivalry was between the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey. Formally, they were on the same side - Turkey at the end of the war joined the allied powers. But after the war ended, Stalin refused to renew the Turkish-Russian non-aggression pact and began breathing down Ankara's back, demanding freer passage for Russia through the Turkish straits, as well as putting forward territorial claims to several provinces in eastern Turkey.

Pressure mounted when the Russian fleet staged a show of force in the Black Sea; after that, US President Harry Truman agreed to bring Turkey closer to the Western camp.

The result in 1952 was Turkey's accession to NATO. As Soner Chagaptay writes in his recent article, this allowed Ankara to take a break from Russian aggression. However, in the following decades, the Moskof appeared in other guises.

During the Cold War, a left-wing intelligentsia appeared in Turkey, which was strongly influenced by the Soviet experience. One of its famous representatives was the poet Nazim Hikmet, who later emigrated to the USSR. People like Hikmet were opposed by the Society for the Fight against Communism (Komünizimle Mücadele Derneği), founded in 1948 under the motto "Communists to Moscow!" The organization is living evidence of how communism managed to rally nationalists and Islamists under one banner.

After the collapse of the USSR, this was rarely possible. The struggle between left and right lasted for a generation, and in the 1970s escalated so much that university campuses became the scene of battles between nationalist "fascists" and communist Moskof usagı- "Moscow lackeys." In 1980, the army staged a coup d'état to end this.

Both the communists and the nationalists were treated harshly by the army. Their political activities were paralyzed for decades. The Islamists, who did not show much activity on the streets, got off relatively lightly and were able to move on. For the generation of Tayyip Erdogan, Abdullah Gul, Bulent Arinc, Beshir Atalay and other young Islamists, there was something akin between the fight against the atheist Moskoff and the fight against the ubiquitous secular state: it was perceived primarily as a just cause, and in addition, deeply close to the spirit of the nation.

The Cold War ultimately brought Moskof to his knees. The Turkish right, as it turned out, chose the side of the winner. The Islamists - by then well organized and funded - rose to prominence for the first time in the history of the Republic.

In 1994 they won the regional elections, and in 2004 they formed a majority government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP, in Turkish AKP). The AKP government, led by Erdogan, has since won four general elections.

The coming to power moderated the views of the Islamists on the outside world, including the northern neighbor. Economic relations were strengthening between Turkey and Russia; Russia has become Turkey's second most important trading partner. Hordes of Russians reappeared in the warm seaports, but now they were paying good money for vacations in the resorts of Marmaris and Antalya. Erdogan has gradually built a close relationship with Putin and distanced himself from his counterparts in the European Union.

As a result, the generation that grew up under the AKP at the beginning of the 2000s heard about the Moskof only from grouchy grandparents, and even then in jest: “Why are you running around the house like a damn Moskoff? Put on a shirt!"

But the old enmity will not disappear in one generation. From those who followed closely, it did not slip away how the Muscovite sharpened his teeth about fellow believers in Chechnya, and more recently - in the Crimea. Now this beast on the other side of the Syrian proxy war is biting into Muslim Turkmens. But this time the Turks have an intercessor, heralding that centuries of decadence are coming to an end.

Erdogan promises a new rise, recalling the battle of Manzikert and the capture of Constantinople.

The "new Turkey", he said, will regain its rightful role as the leading power in the region. And so Erdogan shot down the plane of the Muscovites. We have all seen the fiery streak in the Levantine sky.

Whatever happened, he can't afford to apologize. It would mean breaking the promise made to the tens of millions of people who never stopped dreaming of empire.

2015-12-12T22:02:42+05:00 Sergei Sinenko Analysis - forecast Sergey Sinenko's bloganalysis, history, conflict, Muslims, Russia, Russians, TurkeyWhat do Turks think of Russians? Selim Koru is a Research Fellow at the Turkish Economic Policy Research Foundation (TEPAV). Deals with Turkey's economic and foreign policy in Asia and the Middle East. Text: Selim Koru, WarOnTheRocks. Translation: Nikolai Ershov, Sputnik and Pogrom The young man opposite me leans back in his chair, stretching. "How many years have already passed, and now we shot down the plane." His eyes widen. "And this,...Sergei Sinenko Sergei Sinenko [email protected] Author In the middle of Russia

Diplomat Sergei Koritsky, who has worked in Turkey for more than six years, asked himself: what do Turks know and think about Russia and Russians?

For a month, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is also an amateur photographer, photographed the inhabitants of Antalya and asked them the same question:

“What are the first three words, phrases, associations that come to your mind when you hear about Russia?”

Among Koritsky's interlocutors are entrepreneurs and waiters, taxi drivers and policemen, artists, students and many others. The answers he heard were both familiar and unexpected and interesting.

Dogan Tudun, carpet shop clerk, 19 years old:

Moscow. Very cold. Tourists. - Do tourists from Russia buy carpets? - Practically no ... - Do you want me to send photos by e-mail? - I don't have an email address.

Mustafa Tümer, student, 26 years old:

Vodka. Beautiful girls. Visa-free regime for Turks. - Have you ever been to Russia? - No, but I really want to go. - Are you a musician? - Music is my hobby, I play in the bar in the evenings. And so I am a student, studying at the Faculty of Management of the Mediterranean University.

Umit Gokdash, tennis coach, 41:

Moscow roads in five or six lanes. Pavel Bure. Maria Sharapova. - Roads in Moscow are really wide, but traffic jams remain... - Unfortunately, this is true, but it's still impressive.

Bulent Yshik, manager of "coffee shop on wheels", 28 years old:

Literature. Rich story. Bargain. - Why bargain? - Russians like to bargain. - Do you know anything from Russian literature? - I read Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground" four times.

Eda Su Sezer, bar waitress:

Snow (I came to Antalya from Germany three years ago, haven't seen snow since then, I miss it). Majestic historical buildings (never been to Russia, but I know). I also know that the Russian language is very difficult. - Why did you come from Germany to Antalya? - Fate, perhaps. - Satisfied? - Highly.

Atilla Bakhchivan, owner of a small shop, 60 years old:

Friendly people. Democracy. Decency. - Do Russians buy anything from you? - Yes, I have many buyers from Russia.

Yusuf Durmush:

Vodka. Beautiful girls ... - More? - (in Russian) Go to boarding immediately. - ??? - I worked at the local airport for a long time, I will never forget these words.

Onder Felek, restaurant manager, 29:

Lenin. Stalingrad. Gorbachev. - What comes to mind when you remember Gorbachev? - For some reason, his birthmark on his head always reminded me of a map of the island of Cyprus.

Can Emidzhi, member of the dance group "Fire of Anatolia", 40 years old:

Nazim Hikmet*. St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky. - Have you ever been to St. Petersburg? - Yes, this city made a big impression on me. And in general: three words for Russia are very few. *Nazim Hikmet - a famous Turkish poet, lived and was buried in Moscow in the last years of his life.

Sedat Gundogdu, hairdresser:

Our friendly country. Sochi. Red Army. - Have you been to Sochi? - No, but I watched the opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympics. It was great. - Why the Red Army? - I would like to see the performance of the Red Army Choir in Antalya. I also want to ask a question: do they shave with straight razors in hairdressing salons in Russia?

Agah Gargun, Antalya Harley-Davidson Club coordinator, 47 years old:

Kazan. Grey colour. Train. - Have you ever been to Kazan? - Not. - Why gray color? - That's how I feel. - Why a train? - About 30 years ago I watched a documentary about the Trans-Siberian Railway on Turkish television. I still remember.

Bucky Kefes, taxi driver, 49:

Hospitality. Mafia. Russian tourists - without them, our hotels and pockets would remain empty. - Did you go to Russia? - Twice, I lived in Moscow with friends, I really liked it. Have you seen the mafia there? - Not.

Selcuk Sodim, 72 years old:

Samara. Putin. Leningrad. - Why Samara? - My son is an engineer, he worked in Samara for some time.

Atilla Türkyilmaz, former physical education teacher, retired:

- Dynamo Moscow. Volleyball player Ekaterina Gamova. Happy men. Why do you think Russian men are happy? - Because Russian women are beautiful.

Osman Bashtug, police officer, 43 years old:

Kars*. Natural gas. Kremlin Palace. - Why Kars? - I served there. They say that Kars is very similar to the old Russian cities. Even today there is a lot reminiscent of Russia. - Do you want to wish something to your Russian colleagues? - I would like to wish the police in Russia, and in other countries, patience. *Kars is a city in the north-east of Turkey, in 1878–1917 it was part of the Russian Empire.

Muharrem and Sibel Iyioz, owners of the Beydagi restaurant:

Benevolent people. Hospitality. Red Square, which we really want to see. - Do Russians come to your restaurant? - Yes, often, Russians are very fond of Turkish cuisine.

Buse Gundogan, member of the dance group "Fire of Anatolia":

Moscow. St. Petersburg ... - The third word? - (in Russian) "Come on!"

Savash Altay, artist, 59 years old:

Great country. Art. Freedom. - In your opinion, in Russia, people of art are free in their work? - I have many friends in Russia - artists, sculptors. I know that in their work they feel free. I will add separately: Russian sculptors are the best in the world. - Behind - is this your portrait? - Self-portrait.

Aziz Dincher, hotel director:

Aralov. Yesenin. Mamaev kurgan. - Why Aralov? - This is the first ambassador of Soviet Russia in Ankara. Along with Frunze and Voroshilov, he played an important role in the history of the Turkish Republic. Do you know Yesenin's poems? - "Goodbye, my friend, without a hand, without a word ...". When I was in Konstantinovo, I saw an autograph of this poem in the museum. Was very impressed. - Have you been to Volgograd? - Of course. I was also on Mamaev Kurgan. This is the place where the history of the world was made. We must not forget the cruelty of Hitler's fascism and the heroism of Russian soldiers. - It's a bit unusual to see your UAZ on the streets of Antalya with the image of the "Guard" sign on the door. - I love this car. I also have a white Volga, greetings from the 1970s, but it is not running, it is standing in the hotel courtyard under palm trees.

Ali Shahinkaya, cafe manager, 37 years old:

Russians are our friends. Snow. Nuclear power. - Why did you name nuclear energy? - The Russians are building the first nuclear power plant in Turkey. - Where are you from? - From Trabzon.

Ramazan Zerdali, restaurant worker, 25 years old:

Rich culture. St. Petersburg. Along with the US and the UK, the leading power in the world.

Erkan Ashchi, 31 years old, Erdem Aryci, 32 years old, chefs:

Siberia. Borsch. The Kiev's cutlets. - Of these dishes, what do you cook most often in Turkey? - Sometimes we arrange a “Russian evening” in a restaurant, then we definitely cook Kiev cutlets.

Talat Aktash, sea taxi captain, 44 years old:

Our good neighbor. Great civilization. The country I would like to visit.

This is where our story ends, but I would like to emphasize that in addition to the beauty of a Russian woman, about whom the Turks willingly admire for hours, since they consider themselves "experts", they also have a good understanding of the history of the two peoples, love our poetry, and respect to Russian-Turkish projects.

In less than a year, Russian-Turkish relations turned 180 degrees twice. Has the attitude of ordinary Turks towards Russians changed as a result of these somersaults? What do they generally associate Russia with, what stereotypes do Turkish society have about this? With these questions, Lenta.ru turned to Turkish experts.

Hassan Selim Ozertem, Director of the Center for Security and Energy Studies of the Organization for International Strategic Studies (USAK, Ankara), expert of the Valdai Club:

In Turkey, it is customary to distinguish between relations between people and between states. The Turks were angry that the Russian plane violated the country's airspace and, but this did not change the attitude towards the Russians who come to Turkey. As far as one can tell, there have never been any cases of targeted violence against Russians. Moreover, during the period of deteriorating relations, television did not whip up hatred towards the Russians. Thus, the crisis that erupted on November 24 last year left no noticeable scars.

But the attitude towards Russia as a foreign policy player has deteriorated. If in 2013 and 2015 just over 10 percent of Turks considered Russia a threat (according to a survey by Kadir Has University), then in 2016 there were already 34.9 percent of them. Only the United States was perceived by the residents of Turkey as a more serious threat - 44.1 percent. After relations between the countries normalized, Russia became less likely to see a threat.

In Turkish society, Russia as a state is treated with respect, considered a power developed politically and militarily. However, we are also closely monitoring the performance of the Russian economy.

If you ask ordinary Turks who and what for them is a symbol of Russia and Russians, you will get the following answers: undoubtedly Putin, gas and oil (in that order), nuclear weapons, Moscow, St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square with its bulbous chapters, and today - tourists. And also - don't get me wrong - the beauty of Russian women.

In addition, the Turks have great respect for Russian culture, especially classical authors such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gorky and Pushkin. I believe that Nazim Hikmet (Turkish poet, prose writer, screenwriter, playwright and public figure - approx. "Tapes.ru") and his life in Russia are well known to the Turks, especially those of the left. I don't think that the Turks know modern Russian writers, composers, theater and film directors. The main reasons for this are the lack of proper interaction and the language barrier.

Because of the legacy of previous years, some groups of the population are distancing themselves from Russia. Its communist past is a problem, especially for conservatives and nationalists, but this does not mean that Russia is viewed as a second-rate country, on the contrary, it is taken into account, respected, although it is believed that one must be careful in bilateral relations with it.

Moreover, Russia is seen as a country that contributed to the industrial modernization of Turkey during the Republican period and during the Cold War. Her contribution to the Turkish War of Independence is also known. However, Stalin's demands for control of the straits and territorial claims turned Russia into a threat.

Men love vodka, and women are beautiful - these are the main stereotypes of Turks about Russia and Russians. And the symbol of Russian power and unpredictability is, of course, the bear.

Yasar Yakish, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey (2002-2003), expert of the Valdai Discussion Club:

Russians arouse the interest of the Turks depending on the level of relations between Russia and Turkey. Russians are interesting when Russia draws attention to itself in the international arena, regardless of the state of Russian-Turkish relations. This is speaking in general. Today, Russia and Russians are among the four important topics that periodically come to the fore in Turkish public opinion. Relations with the United States, relations with Russia, the process of joining the European Union, the issue of Cyprus (meaning the legal status of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state recognized only by Ankara - approx. "Tapes.ru") - these are important topics for the Turks, and the order of their importance varies depending on the circumstances. And it doesn't matter if they sound with a plus sign or a minus sign.

Turkish society knows that Russia is a heterogeneous, multinational and multi-confessional state. Also, the Turks are aware of the dominance of the Russian language, that it is spoken by educated people in many post-Soviet countries - in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Moreover, Russian is also used there for communication in the family.

There is a visible difference between the perceptions of elites and ordinary people about Russia and Russians. Elites are more inclined to think of Russia and the Russian people in a broader historical perspective: the shared imperial past of the Ottomans and Tsarist Russia, the contributions of Tsarist and Communist Russia to modern civilization and technology, the absence or dysfunction of democracy, the Russo-Turkish wars, and so on. The Russian Turkish intelligentsia is represented by such writers as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Turgenev, and such composer as Tchaikovsky. If you ask business representatives about Russia, they will first of all remember Russian architecture and infrastructure.

Ordinary Turks, somewhere in the back of their memory, still have information about the numerous Russian-Turkish wars. On the positive side, ideas about Russians are created based on direct contacts between people that began after the collapse of communism and the expansion of economic ties, after the arrival in Russia of a huge number of Turkish workers, engineers and other specialists, tens of thousands of mixed marriages, millions of Russian tourists visiting Turkey. As for symbols, people from the street associate Russia with a bear, nesting dolls, Caucasian dances. The strength of Russia for the Turks is expressed by the head of state, now it is President Putin.

After the collapse of communism, positive perceptions of Russians outweigh the negative ones. These stereotypes include mutual respect and understanding. The genuine hospitality with which post-Soviet Russians greet Turks who come to Russia is another stereotype. Russian tourists in Turkey are perceived much more positively than tourists from European countries. Delving into history, we can recall: Turkish prisoners of war captured by the Russian army in 1917 said that both the Russian authorities and the people treated them politely, respecting their human dignity. Turkish workers in Russia feel more at home than in Europe. Marriages between Turks and Russians are easier to arrange than marriages between Turks and Europeans, perhaps because Russian spouses are more attuned to the way Turkish family life works.