Turkey by October 2020 seemed to closer than at any time since the Cold War to unambiguous and overt hostilities with Russia. But, then, Turkey was already in some form of conflict with at least 21 adversaries. Turkey and Russia are strategically interdependent, but simultaneously remain great rivals and with deep, historically-developed, mutual animosities. Not surprisingly, the Turkish Government of Pres. Reçep Tayyip Erdo?an moved yet again to carefully instigate a crisis with Russia, this time by triggering a military escalation between Azerbaijan (a U.S., Israeli, and Turkish client state) and Armenia (a Russian and Iranian client state). This time, the Russo-Turkish conflict was being waged by proxies: Azerbaijan and Armenia, and it was, at least in part, over the viability of the Southern Corridor Gas Pipeline, via Turkey, and the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, both critical to Turkey’s economy. And both of which challenge Russia’s domination of energy distribution […]