Turkey to continue working for permanent ceasefire in Ukraine, says Kalın

ANKARA

A senior Turkish official has vowed that Turkey will continue its efforts for a permanent ceasefire in Ukraine, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone on the weekend.

“We will continue our initiatives under the leadership of our president so that the ceasefire will become permanent and the peace negotiations will yield results,” Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy adviser, İbrahim Kalın, said on Twitter on March 7.

Kalın made the statement after Russia announced it will implement a temporary ceasefire in the conflict areas for the evacuation of civilians in Ukraine. The adviser welcomed the move.

Turkey has long been exerting efforts to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, even before the war started. Erdoğan and Putin spoke over the phone on March 6 in which the Turkish president proposed his counterpart to open a path of peace together and launch talks for a peaceful resolution of the problems.

Following the conversation between Erdoğan and Putin, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğu exchanged views with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian Foreign Minşster Sergey Lavrov late March 6, diplomatic sources said.

On the one hand, Turkey is trying to accomplish the evacuation of its citizens from Ukraine, and on the other, to convince the two warring sides to come together at a negotiation table in Antalya this weekend.

Çavuşoğlu had invited both men to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, which will be convened between March 11 and 13.

He said both the ministers had confirmed their participation before the war, and it remains to be seen whether they still can make it.

Turkey, having a special relationship with both countries, is encouraging them to give an end to the fighting and start talks for a political solution. The forum in Antalya is expected to host leaders and dozens of foreign ministers, as well as scores of experts, academics and media members from all over the world.