The first round of talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended with the leaders announcing there will be a second round of talks focusing on mainly the crisis in Syria.
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Putin said Moscow would gradually phase out sanctions against Ankara, imposed after the Turks shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border nine months ago, and that bringing ties to their pre-crisis level was the priority.
In contrast to the chill in Turkey’s ties with the West, a Turkish official described the mood at Erdogan’s talks in St Petersburg with President Putin on Tuesday as “very positive”.
Erdogan said that he hoped Russian-Turkish relations would become “more robust” and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup.
Erdogan said that he now wanted to see the TurkStream project “done as fast as possible”, while Putin said construction could start “in the nearest future”.
Putin added that he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top military and intelligence officials to search for common ground in the crisis, where Moscow and Ankara have backed the opposing sides.
In his first trip since the July 15 putsch, he is going to Russian Federation and will meet with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Outside observers noted that the abortive putsch marked a rapid turning point in the relations between the two countries, though signs of a rapprochement had been evident the month before, when Erdogan apologized for the downing of the plane.
Erdogan’s trip to Russian Federation comes as Turkey’s relations with Europe and the United States are strained by what Ankara sees as Western concern about how it handled the abortive coup, in which more than 240 people were killed.
“I’d like to say to my friend Putin thank you, I’d like to express my respect and love to the press”, Erdogan said.
Analysts say that Erdogan may now be hoping to play the Russian card to strengthen his hand in disputes with the United States and European Union.
Turkey is pressing the United States hard to extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government blames for the failed coup.
“There is no firm information on who the head of state would have been, who the prime minister would have been, if this coup had been successful”, Bozdag said.
Turkey hosts American troops and warplanes at its Incirlik Air Base, an important staging area for the USA -led fight against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. Washington has denied that.
Erdogan was speaking in St. Petersburg on August 9 ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
More than 240 people were killed and almost 2,200 people were wounded when a faction of the military commandeered fighter jets, military helicopters and tanks, opening fire on civilians as they attempted to overthrow the government.
Authorities have suspended, detained or put under investigation tens of thousands of people in the armed forces, the judiciary, civil service and elsewhere since the coup, in which a faction of the military commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks in an attempt to topple the government. Turkey has been holding nearly daily mass rallies since July 15 in support of democracy and the government and against the plotters.
Putin responded in kind, saying that “higher interests of our peoples, our nations require the restoration of our relations”.
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Isachenkov reported from Moscow.
