Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials.
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In his first visit overseas since an attempted coup of his government last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a big step towards rectifying a broken relationship with Russian Federation, which has taken a serious toll on his country’s economy. I really don’t think that we will see a breakthrough in this case.
And demands by Turkish leaders for the extradition of a cleric living in Pennsylvania have met with resistance in the USA government, where officials say they see no proof that the man, Fethullah Gulen, 75, bore any responsibility for the coup attempt as Turkey alleges.
Analysts say Erdogan must be expecting Russian Federation to give up its long-standing support to Kurdish separatists in a trade-off for its continuing support to the Assad regime in Syria, which Turkey despises.
Syria and anti-terrorism cooperation are also expected to be high on their agenda.
Erdogan has said he would approve the return of capital punishment if Turkey’s parliament backed it. “We feel the sincerity of our Turkish friends and want to do this”.
Erdogan is turning to Russia after post-coup criticism from the West and in an effort to mend relations with Russia after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane along the Syrian border a year ago. “Turkey’s exports to Russian Federation, including food, fell by more than half to $730m in the first six months of this year”.
Putin told Erdogan that he hoped Ankara could fully restore order after a failed military coup last month, saying Moscow always opposed unconstitutional actions.
On Syria, he acknowledged that the two countries held different views but said they shared the same goal. “We have a lot of issues on the agenda concerning bilateral relations and their development”, he said. A number of sectors, notably trade and tourism, as well as some key energy projects, including the Akkuyu power plant and the planned Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, were deeply affected by the deterioration of relations with Russia following the downing of the Russian jet by Turkey last November.
Announced by Putin in December 2014, the pipeline will carry Russian gas via the Black Sea and Turkey to southeastern Europe.
Now with Russian Federation mired in economic crisis due to Western sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices along with Turkey’s outlook flagging, both men want to get business started again.
“Our bilateral trade was at $35 billion, but with the events (of last November) it has dropped to $27 billion”.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukaev said a boycott of Turkish food imports could be removed by the end of the year, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
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The shoot-down, which Putin called a “treacherous stab in the back”, brought relations to a freezing point where they remained for seven months until Erdogan apologized to Russian Federation in June.
