Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan held the first talks on August 9 after the 8-month freeze in bilateral relations following the downing of a Russian jet last November.
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The meeting comes almost nine months after Russia’s leader called Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border a “stab in the back” and imposed a series of punitive sanctions. Russia promptly cut ties with Turkey over the incident, banned Turkish vegetables, restricted Russian tourists’ access to Turkey and blocked some Turkish companies from working on the Russian market.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday after talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that the two nations can rebuild their damaged ties and make them even closer, promising to back major energy projects with Russian Federation.
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.
Putin began a reversal of the measures in June after receiving an apology from Erdogan over the incident.
After the failed coup in Turkey on July 15, Putin publicly expressed support for Erdogan, and he hasn’t condemned the Turkish president’s mass detentions of those allegedly responsible the same way the European Union and the USA have.
“We will have an opportunity today to talk both in the narrow and broad format on the whole range of our relations, including on restoring trade and economic ties, cooperation in the sphere of fighting against terrorism”, Putin said adding that he is “very glad about this opportunity”.
“Your visit today, despite a very hard situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russian Federation and Turkey”, Mr Putin said as the pair met in the city’s Constantine Palace.
Recep Erdogan thanked Mr Putin, saying “your call straight after the coup attempt was very welcome”.
The post Erdogan Visits Putin, Seeks to Mend Broken Ties With Russia appeared first on SIGNAL.
It is also Erdogan’s first state trip overseas since the attempted coup in Turkey in July.
Supporters of of President Erdogan in Antalya last month, following the attempted coup in Turkey.
Turkey warned the United States on Tuesday not to sacrifice bilateral ties over Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the failed coup and wants to see extradited to face trial. Activists monitoring the war say Turkey, which borders Syria, has slowed arms shipments to rebels since the July 15 coup attempt, signaling a possible strategic rethink.
Gulen strongly denies any involvement in the attempted putsch and insists his movement is a charitable network promoting tolerant Islam.
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At least 18,000 people have been detained or arrested and almost 70,000 others have been purged from the civil service, judiciary, education, health care and the military.
