The two presidents met face-to-face for the first time since Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian Su-24 warplane over the Syrian border last September, bringing the regional rivals to the brink of war and sparking a political crisis.
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President Erdogan travels to Russia to meet with President Putin for the first time since apologising in late June for the downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border in November past year.
In discussions he called “constructive”, Putin said that Russian Federation would gradually lift economic sanctions from Turkish companies, seek to resume charter flights to take tourists to Turkey, consider resuming imports of Turkish agricultural products and pursue other steps to fix economic cooperation.
Though the meeting between the two leaders had been in the making for months – facilitated by the Turkish businessman Cavit Çağlar and mediation from the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaiev – the fact remains that it was Erdogan’s first visit overseas since the failed coup in mid-July, when Putin and Nazarbaiev both expressed their support for Erdogan before his North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
Cooperation is to be increased on several projects, including a planned US$20 billion gas pipeline and a nuclear power plant to be built in Turkey by the Russians, Erdogan said.
The downing of the Russian jet in November, which Putin described as a “treacherous stab in the back”, came amid boiling tensions over Syria, where Moscow and Ankara back opposing sides in the war.
Russian Federation and Turkey remain on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, with Turkey and the rest of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supporting opposition against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whom Russian Federation has backed with military supplies and its own bombing campaign.
Erdogan particularly mentioned Putin’s gesture, saying it “gladdened me, my colleagues and our people”.
Your visit. despite a very hard situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russian Federation and Turkey.
Turkey accuses Gulen of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt and had called for his extradition from the US.
Mr Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted to establish a “strong mechanism” with Russian Federation to find a solution for Syria, without explaining what this might entail.
Talks in narrow and broad format outlined initial objectives for long-term restoration of relations, aiming to reach pre-crisis level of bilateral cooperation, said Putin.
Kalin insisted Turkey’s position on Assad had not changed despite the reconciliation with Russia: “We still want him to go”.
The leaders are expected to discuss Syria and other subjects in a highly symbolic meeting that will likely make western governments nervous, because it’s a U-turn for two governments who were insulting each other just two months ago.
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It is believed that Russia had alerted Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization about the military coup beforehand after Russian army had intercepted sensitive exchanges and encoded radio messages of the Turkish army from which it learnt of the coup attempt against the President in Ankara. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that so far, U.S. officials have not been persuaded by the evidence provided by the Turkish government.
