2. Russian disinformation in Türkiye: targeting alliances and legal anchors
Russian disinformation in Türkiye operates as a layered effort to weaken both the country’s alliance ties and the legal‑institutional anchors of its Black Sea policy. Analyses discussed in the Turkey Recap conversation with Karolina Wanda Olszowska and Karol Wasilewski indicate that pro‑Kremlin and Russia-sympathetic outlets, notably Sputnik Türkiye, frame NATO as a reckless actor, depict the Ukraine war as primarily a Western provocation, and suggest that Türkiye is being dragged into somebody else’s conflict by its alliance commitments.
Within this narrative universe, sovereignty rhetoric is often deployed in ways that can indirectly cast treaty‑based restraint, above all the Montreux regime and Türkiye’s custodial role over the Straits, as an externally imposed limitation, making it easier to argue, for instance, that the Straits should be used as political leverage or that restrictions should be relaxed to suit preferred partners. Such framings run directly counter to AVİM’s findings that it is precisely this legal architecture, implemented through Türkiye’s guardianship, that has so far kept Black Sea escalation in check; if internalized in public debate, they risk eroding societal support for the guardianship posture that underpins regional stability.