Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jets into Russia on Tuesday for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin since the two began healing a bitter rift over Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet.
Advertisement
Russian Federation and Turkey have been on different sides in Syria, with Moscow backing President Bashar al-Assad while Ankara wants him ousted.
Putin, one of the first to call the Turkish leader to offer his support in the putsch’s aftermath, has positioned himself as a reliable ally even though ties between Moscow and Ankara were thrown into crisis by Turkey shooting down a Russian military jet near the Syrian border late past year. Russia promptly cut ties with Turkey over the incident, banned Turkish vegetables, restricted Russian tourists’ access to Turkey and blocked some Turkish companies from working on the Russian market.
Erdogan, in his TASS interview, repeatedly referred to Putin as “dear” or “respected” Vladimir and called him a friend. “This new page will include military, economic, and cultural cooperation”, Erdogan told TASS. “He wants to build a new framework of relations based on Syria with Russian Federation as well”. “But in order to take this step, we really wish the person (Syrian President Bashar Assad) who shed the blood of 600 thousand people to step aside and stop the killings”, he said. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Russian Federation, unlike other countries, had shown “unconditional support” after the coup attempt. And some Turkish officials are questioning whether Turkey should move toward Russian Federation, he said.
Asked about the agreement between Turkey and the European Union to stem the flow of migrants, Erdogan accused the bloc of not keeping its promises.
“When the bombings happened in France, in Britain, Germany – wherever – we always support them”. The United Nations has allocated about 500 million US dollars.
European nations and human rights groups have expressed alarm over the scope of Turkey’s crackdown, triggering anger from Turkish officials who have complained of a lack of support for Turkey over the failed coup.
Advertisement
“Building relationships with Russian Federation for him is a normal step”, Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said of Erdogan.
