President Erdogan travels to Russia to meet with President Putin for the first time since apologizing in late June for the downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border in November previous year.
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The one-day meeting in St. Petersburg also marked Erdogan’s first foreign visit since the July 15 failed military coup attempt against him in Turkey, which has strained relations between Turkey and the US.
Turkey’s relations with traditional allies including the US have faltered over Ankara’s post-coup crackdown, which has seen almost 18,000 people detained or arrested and tens of thousands suspended or fired from their jobs on suspicion of being associated with the movement of USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey wants him extradited from the United States. Putin reiterated his thanks in a press conference after the meeting.
“Turkey-Russia ties have entered into a very different and positive phase”, Erdogan said.
“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”, said Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul.
The two leaders also said they would discuss one major issue dividing them – the war in Syria – after the news conference.
Russia imposed trade sanctions on Turkey in the wake of the shooting down of its jet and the number of Russian tourists visiting the country fell by 87 per cent in the first half of 2016.
Russian Federation slapped Turkey with harsh economic sanctions in January as punishment for the downed fighter jet, including a ban on Turkish produce and charter flights to Turkey.
At the time, Mr Putin branded it a “stab in the back” committed by “accomplices of terrorists”.
“But now some are wondering if Erdogan’s Russian Federation visit coming at a time of strong anti-American feelings at home should be seen as something more than a symbolic diplomatic foray”.
The leaders will also reportedly discuss the Syrian war, which experts say will be hard, considering that Russian Federation and Turkey lie on opposite sides of the conflict. Recognising that its strategy of “no problems with neighbours” has transformed into nothing but problems with neighbours, Ankara has mended critical relationships such as the one with Russian Federation.
“They’re both in the situation where they need friends”, Philip Hanson, a Russian Federation analyst at Chatham House, 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. Erdogan has blamed a Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in the USA for orchestrating the coup.
Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of European Union leaders about the ensuing crackdown.
A caller survey Tuesday by the radio station Ekho Moskvi found 64 percent of listeners were unhappy Putin had made peace with Erdogan.
The St. Petersburg meeting marks a swift reversal in relations.
“That we’re friends with the Turkish people again pleases me overall”, he said. “Turkey has warm seas, good products, and tasty tomatoes”.
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The talks began amicably, with both leaders expressing their intention to work toward mending the relationship.
