Erdogan met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in St. Petersburg, marking the first meeting between the two leaders since Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last November.
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Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said “Bulgaria and Russian Federation agreed to resurrect the canceled South Stream natural gas pipeline across the Black Sea, and the Belene nuclear power plant”. Turkey badly needs the flow of Russian tourists to resume, and Turkish farmers, construction companies and other businesses badly need to regain access to the Russian market, which has been shut to them after the plane’s downing.
The two leaders also raised the prospect of cooperation between Moscow and Ankara on the Syrian civil war despite them backing opposing sides.
Russian Federation is flying a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader.
“When the Turkish military shot down a Russian fighter jet that it said strayed from Syrian into Turkish airspace last November, Moscow’s retaliation was swift”, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul, said. “That is why yesterday Erdogan underlined before the summit that Russian Federation is the most important actor in Syrian crisis”, Sezer said.
Erdogan’s visit to Putin’s hometown of St Petersburg on Tuesday was also his first foreign trip since a failed coup attempt last month.
And demands by Turkish leaders for the extradition of a cleric living in Pennsylvania have met with resistance in the US government, where officials say they see no proof that the man, Fethullah Gulen, 75, bore any responsibility for the coup attempt as Turkey alleges. Erdogan publicly made it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union.
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. He has demanded that the United States extradite a US -based Turkish cleric who he says inspired the putsch. However, the USA says it still is reviewing the request.
European officials and rights groups have expressed concern over the crackdown – statements that have vexed Turkish authorities. Ankara has accused the West of failing to show due support for a democratically elected government.
Turkey remains a “strong” member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the presidency said on Wednesday, after a hugely symbolic visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russian Federation raised questions about its future in the alliance.
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“We worked very hard to have good relations with Europe for 15 years”.
