Turkey, Russia Alliance Could Be Bad News for the West

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan is slamming the United States and other Western countries for not supporting him after the attempted coup.

Erdogan's angry remarks come as he makes a historic visit to Russia to repair relations between the countries.

For centuries Turkey and Russia were arch enemies, but this week in St. Petersburg, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan decided they could no longer afford a cold war.

"I see this visit as a start of a new era in our bilateral relations," Erdogan said.

"Your visit, despite the very difficult political situation in Turkey, shows that we all want our dialogue to be resumed and our relations to be restored for the sake of the Russian and Turkish people," Putin remarked.

The new beginning has caught some in the capitals of Europe and Washington by surprise.

Both countries tried to forge closer ties in the past but were undone by the war in Syria. Putin backed Syria's Bashar al-Assad, while Erdogan supported his enemies.

"They still cannot agree on what they can do in Syria," Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said.

Then last November, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said had violated its airspace on the Syrian border.

Putin called Erdogan a back-stabber and demanded an apology. Erdogan refused. Putin retaliated by imposing trade sanctions which cost Turkey billions of dollars.

"For example, 98 percent of Russian tourists had been lost, which was a huge number for the Turkish economy," explained Emre Ersen, an expert on Russian-Turkey relations. "Also some very important economic projects such as the Turkish stream natural gas pipeline or Turkey's first nuclear power plant -- they had to be postponed."

But the recent failed coup in Turkey appears to have precipitated a reset in relations.

Erdogan alarmed the West by arresting nearly 18,000 people on suspicion of trying to overthrow his government. Tens of thousands of others lost their jobs for backing the coup. Some Turks even blamed the U.S. for orchestrating the uprising.

Putin, on the other hand, supported Erdogan during the coup, causing a strain in relations between the U.S. and Russia and the U.S. and Turkey.

Some worry Russia and Turkey's new friendship could be bad news for the West.

"If any country gets closer to Russia, it becomes a reason for panic. It is a basis for countermeasures," Baunov explained.

But there are others who welcome a possible new alliance.

"The EU and America want to isolate Russia," Istanbul resident Sedat Guzen said. "Turkey is also isolated by some European countries. So improved relations between Russia and Turkey are good for both sides."