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Turkey faces 'geography’s revenge' in Crimea

Turkey’s strategic environment has become even more complicated following the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) meets with Ukraine's interim President Oleksander Turchinov in Kiev March 1, 2014. REUTERS/Anastasia Sirotkina/Pool (UKRAINE  - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3FUS8
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Russia’s seizure of Crimea is a harbinger of a new Cold War that leaves Turkey facing complex situations on a number of fronts, requiring careful diplomatic and political management. Whether Ankara can rise to the occasion given that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is up to its neck in what it sees as a war of survival against its political enemies at home remains an open question.

No matter how tense the domestic situation may be, though, this is not a crisis that Turkey can afford to ignore or overlook, even if its ability to influence the course of events is limited, if indeed it exists at all.

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