Erdoğan says Türkiye ready to facilitate Russia-Ukraine peace talks

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election victory and reiterated Ankara’s readiness to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

According to the Communications Directorate, Erdoğan called Putin to congratulate him on late March 18.

“Expressing his belief that the positive course in the Türkiye-Russia relations would increasingly continue in the new period, President Erdoğan stated that Türkiye stands ready to assume any facilitating role in returning to the negotiating table in Ukraine,” read the statement.

Putin was re-elected as the President of Russia for the fifth time in polls that took place between March 15 and 17, garnering 87.8 percent of votes.

Russia staged a war against Ukraine in February 2022 and occupied the eastern Ukrainian territories. Türkiye has been one of few countries calling for the cessation of armed conflict between the two neighbors since the beginning of the war.

It hosted Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in March 2022 in Antalya for talks on a lasting agreement. Ankara blames some Western countries for discouraging Ukraine to sit at the same table with Russia.

President Erdoğan has repeatedly called on both Putin and Ukraine President Volodomyry Zelensky to give a chance to peace talks and that Türkiye stands ready to play the role of a facilitator.

In the meantime, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan underlined the fact that Türkiye is in contact with both countries and using this status for promoting peace and stability, in a televised interview on late March 18.

“This has turned into a war of attrition for both sides. We, as Türkiye, are concerned about it. In addition, strategically speaking, we are also concerned about the spread of this war to the region. The Black Sea has already been witnessing this,” Fidan said.

Underlining that Türkiye doesn’t expect much to change during the war in 2024 amid the West’s plans to create a peace table in 2025, Fidan reminded that the continuation of the war will create more casualties and destruction.