“Erdogan has contrasted what Putin did in the aftermath of the attempted coup with the absence of similar moves from Western leaders”, Al Jazeera reported.
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Previously, tension between Turkey and Russia was high when Turkey shot down a Russian military jet in the Syrian border last November 2015.
Trudeau did not provide any updates about Turkey’s extradition request for Fetullah Gulen, who is the leader of the Fetullah Terror Organization (FETO) that organized the coup attempt, according to the Turkish government. Turkey also sought Gulen’s extradition but the U.S. demanded clear evidence. While Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation’s civil war and further bolstered that support by launching an air campaign last September, Turkey has pushed for Assad’s removal.
The state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has $10 billion of reserved capital under management, said in a statement on Tuesday it expects to sign a joint investment deal with a leading Turkish holding company during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Russia.
Erdogan said that Turkey was entering a “very different period” in relations with Russian Federation, and that solidarity between the two countries would help the resolution of regional problems.
The Turkish president seemed more sanguine about the restoration of friendly relations with Russian Federation to their pre-November levels, notwithstanding differences between the two nations on several fronts, notably over Syria, Ukraine, Armenia and Cyprus.
Putin insisted that he wanted to see relations with “our Turkish friends” return to previous levels but stressed that it would take time for Moscow to roll back a series of economic sanctions against Ankara. President Barack Obama’s administration has strongly denied that.
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.
Turkey is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and says it aspires to join the European Union.
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Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara it was normal for Turkey to seek “other options” on defence cooperation as it had not received the expected support from its western friends and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies following the failed coup. “The United States is a great state and I believe will do what is expected from a great state”. “They have failed the test following the coup attempt”, he said in the interview, which was broadcast live.
