More than 2000 years ago, Gaius Valerius Catullus, a classical Latin poet, wrote his most famous poem titled by its opening phrase: ‘Odi et amo’.
These one of the best-known verses in the human history are also among the shortest, consisting only of two lines with 14 words. But in fact its plot can be even reduced to the above-mentioned thesis which literal translation is ‘I love and I hate’ — meaning one’s extremely complicated relations with the partner.
We can doubt the exact date and time of the creation of this couplet; but it is obvious that it is one of Catullus’ last masterpieces, when the author was mature. And as well, it is obvious that Catullus spent his last years in the Roman provinces of Anatolia, at the modern-day territory of Turkiye.
Almost 20 years ago, when I was studying at the university — let’s fill our story with something Umberto Eco-like — one of the most magnificent hours was a brief course of Latin. Analyzing Catullus’ lyrics, our Professor told us that in Classical Latin, the proper pronunciation of that words could sounded as ‘Oditamo’, an undivided dichotomy of Love and Hate simultaneously.
One of Catullus’ successors, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), also spent an essential part of his life very far from Rome. According to the most reliable version, the Roman Emperor was shamed by Ovid’s lyrics and expelled him to the outskirt of the Empire.
Ovid’s exile took place somewhere in the modern Romania, perhaps at the city of Constantsa; but the old Russians — such as the founding father of our literature, Alexander Puskin — believed that the famous poet, whom they dared to inherit, lived in the South of Russia, somewhere in the modern town of Ovidiopol.
Doesn’t it amazing that two main Antic Roman poets had accidentally become the parts of the Turkish and the Russian universes respectively?
Now, 2000 years later, that world has not changed. We still have a thalassocratic Empire which calls its main hill and a state body situated there with a latin word ‘Capitolium’ (the US Capitol). This Empire gradually degrades due to multiple reasons — climate change, economics, inner instability, moral decline — but still has a plenty of power, the largest army, and its Law an Order which the Empire desires to impose all over world no matter what it thinks about such an oppressive approach.
The reason is that the Empire considers all other societies as ‘Barbaric tribes’, despite the latter could be elder and more cultural than Rome — such as China, India, or Parthia (nowadays Iran). Nevertheless, these other civilizations could consented to follow the Roman Law & Order and joined PAX ROMANA (the Roman Universe) as minor partners if the ruling actor might have been really able to establish peace, equality, fair trade and independent justice.
Yet what do we see now? PAX AMERICANA (the American Universe) becomes an uncomfortable, non-stable and dangerous space even for the American citizens, not to mention overseas lands. The modern-day Ovid, Russia, is exiled and sanctioned for its independent policy. The modern-day Catullus, Turkiye that conducts counter-terroristic activities at its Eastern and Southern borders, faces shame from the American self-proclaimed pundits.
You would ask, ‘Why doesn’t such an anti-universe collapse?’ Because the modern Rome uses the same tactics as the previous one: ‘Divide et impera’. Which means, ‘Divide your enemies and gain all the power’.
Indeed, what did I hear when I was at the university at the dawn of this century?
“Turkish men abduct and rape Russian women”. “China wants to conqueror Siberia”. “Iranian muslims are Al-Qaeda-style terrorists”.
Such narrative was common among the media, influencers, and scholars.
And I am sure that my colleagues from the designated countries also heard something the same regarding Russia and other potential US-competitors. Since that time, the scene has partly changed, but pro-American — and, widely, pro-Western — actors still play their influential roles more or less controlling our media, finances, politics, educational system, culture and so on.
So mutual approaching of Moscow and Ankara — despite it yields both — faces extreme challenges from both. The actual relations of this couple can be described with the same ‘Odi et amo’ poem by Catullus.
In the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis, Turkiye supports the latter, providing Ukraine its Bayraktar drones, Kirpi vehicles, diplomatic support and other aid. Every Russian assesses it as an existential danger since such armament could be exploited to kill the ethnic Russian inhabitants of the South East of Ukraine.
On the other hand, during the Karabakh crisis, Russia supplied one of its sides with the weapons — which was marked as a threat by Azerbaijan, a Turkiye’s brother-nation in the region.
From the Black Sea to Caucasus and from Cyprus to Syria, these two powers are more likely to be foes rather than friends. But in their core, both have more mutual points than it seems. While America has borrowed from the Old Rome its worst parts — autocracy, corruption, and nepotism — Russia and Turkiye, being the same successors of the same Antic Empire, have inherited its best essence: the dedication to Justice. Which means, when we give somebody a word, we follow it instead of inventing double standards to advocate our hypocrisy. Just remember the West praising its democracy while hosting FETO terrorists in Pennsylvania or YPG slaughterers in Stockholm.
That is why such a value-based engagement of Russia and Turkiye is inevitable. I don’t know how more losses both countries would suffer from before realising it — but I know that the smallest part of the world can not tyrannically dictate the rest of the humanity, either it would be Old Rome or modern Capitol Hill.
The author is an Adjunct Professor at the Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg, Russia)
