Newsletters
The deputy chairman of Türkiye's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) traveled to Moscow in March on party leader Devlet Bahceli's instructions to promote a proposed Türkiye-Russia-China alliance against what the party calls the "U.S.-Israel evil coalition," he told Russia's Vedomosti newspaper.
"Our party leader Bahceli tasked me with this visit to Moscow to hold talks with political parties, bureaucrats, and intellectuals, and to explain the content of this initiative in detail," Ilyas Topsakal, MHP deputy chairman and an MP, told Vedomosti.
He said the MHP's unofficial condition for maintaining its coalition with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ahead of the 2028 elections is "not ministerial posts, but the adoption of a program for cooperation with Russia and China."
Topsakal described the initiative as creating "synergy" between organizations that include Russia, Türkiye, and China, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Collective Security Treaty Organization, and the Türkiye-founded Organization of Turkic States, which includes five CIS countries.
He argued that the combined economic weight of these nations accounts for approximately 20% of global gross domestic product (GDP). The proposed framework echoes Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2018 concept of a "Greater Eurasian Partnership."
Topsakal stated that the MHP now advocates for "synergy between the Russian World and the Turkic World" across the former Soviet space, describing the party's previous pan-Turkist ideology as "romantic" and "no longer relevant."
Bahceli, leader of MHP and Erdogan's key ally, called in September 2025 for the formation of a strategic alliance between Türkiye, Russia, and China to counter what he described as an "evil coalition" led by the United States and Israel.
Russia has also expressed interest in the MHP leader Devlet Bahceli's proposal for a Türkiye-Russia-China alliance to counter the West, with Moscow's top diplomat in Türkiye calling the idea "very interesting" and "quite logical."
Russian Charge d'Affaires in Türkiye Alexei Ivanov said the alliance proposal reflects a sound understanding of global dynamics.
"The idea expressed by leader Bahceli seemed very interesting to us. Bahceli looks quite logically at the ongoing processes," Ivanov told Turkish newspaper Nefes in an interview, the original Russian text of which was provided by the Russian diplomatic mission's press service to RIA Novosti.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
