It also claimed Turkey getting closer to Russia might be because of “Erdogan’s hope to play the Russian card to strengthen his hand in disputes” with the USA and EU.
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Both leaders looked composed and not overly emotional when they met and shook hands for a picture.
The meeting between the two leaders was their first since Ankara downed one of Moscow’s warplanes last November, which sparked a diplomatic crisis as well as Russia’s economic sanctions. It occurred at a time when ties between Turkey and Russian were already strained because of the Syrian civil war.
They were also expected to discuss Syria, a conflict where the two countries find themselves on opposing sides, with Moscow backing President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara wanting him out of power.
He said this rapprochement between Turkey and Russian Federation may come as a surprise to the West and dramatically change the balance in the region.
Erdogan: “Your call just after the coup attempt cheered me, my colleagues and our people”.
The Turkish president’s visit to Russian Federation is his first foreign trip since a failed military coup in Turkey last month, in which more than 240 people were killed.
“Your visit, which comes amid a very complicated situation in Turkey, indicates that all of us want to revive our dialogue and restore relations for the sake of the Turkish and Russian peoples”, Putin said, greeting Erdogan in St. Petersburg.
Plenty of strategists in Washington and Brussels welcomed the rift between Turkey and Russian Federation, seeing it as a chance to put more pressure on Moscow’s interests in the Middle East and the Black Sea, but now the balance is shifting again.
Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in the USA state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his followers for the attempted putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed and almost 2,200 wounded.
Putin said work on the first pipeline carrying Russian gas to the Turkish market would be started “in the nearest future”.
Gulen strongly denies Ankara’s accusations and his lawyer on Friday said Turkey had failed to provide “a scintilla” of proof to support its claim. The issue has been a dispute between Turkey and U.S. -Turkish ties, with some Turkish officials implying Washington could have been behind the coup.
Turkey has requested the extradition of Gulen since the putsch attempt, however the USA says it is reviewing the extradition request’s formality.
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The failed coup saw renegade Turkish military officers using jets, helicopters and tanks to try to take power in a night of violence that left more than 270 people dead. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration.
