Ankara will stick to its Syria policy despite Moscow
Significance Confrontations between Russian and Turkish fighter jets along the Turkish-Syrian border -- which triggered strong expressions of support for Turkey from NATO and the EU -- have followed on swiftly after Russia's intervention in Syria's civil war. Russia's intervention threatens to set back Turkey's ambitions of eventually replacing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a mainly Sunni Islamist regime, and jeopardise Turkey's very important economic and political relations with Russia. Impacts Erdogan will attempt to pursue an inflexible and uncompromising line towards Russia despite Turkey's need for good relations. There are now strong question marks over such Russo-Turkish projects as the TurkStream gas pipeline and possibly even a nuclear power plant. If (unlikely but not impossible) AKP loses the November elections, a new government would reverse Syria policy and revive Russian relations.