Published: 06.03.2022 – 20:51
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on the phone this Sunday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, whom he called for an “urgent general ceasefire” in Ukraine to “seek a political solution.” Erdogan also repeated his offer of mediation between Kiev and Moscow. But Vladimir Putin once again demanded that Russia’s conditions be met first.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Ann Andlauer
give it a chance fire cease, to dialogue, to civilians who want to flee to safety along a humanitarian corridor: this is a repeated call from Ankara to Moscow, from Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Vladimir Putin, with whom he spoke for about an hour on the phone. The two men know each other well – they’ve been together for 19 years – and their exchanges have strengthened in recent years.
Before the Russian attack, Recep Tayyip Erdogan several times offered to organize negotiations between Vladimir Putin and his colleague. Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky to which the Turkish president is also close. This offer of mediation is as relevant as ever, but initially Turkey has high hopes for holding a meeting of the heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy at the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya, scheduled for March 11-13.
Turkey, being a member of NATO and strongly condemning the invasion of Ukraine, refuses to join the sanctions against Russia. Officially “to maintain a dialogue”, but also to protect their interests as much as possible, in particular their already fragile economy.