Kremlin says Putin, Erdoğan discussed Russian air defense supplies to Turkey

YEREVAN

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently discussed possible supplies of Russian air defense systems to Ankara, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Oct. 14. 

“They mentioned various anti-missile systems, the supplies of which in different variations Russia could consider if there was such a wish on Turkey’s side,” Reuters quoted Peskov as telling reporters on Oct. 14 in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Peskov was referring to the meeting between the two leaders during Putin’s recent visit to a world energy congress in Istanbul on Oct. 10.

Putin was in Yerevan to attend a meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council, also attended by the heads of state of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. 

Relations between Ankara and Moscow were recently normalized after hitting a low following Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet along its border with Syria on Nov. 24, 2015, citing air space violations. 

Russia denied the violations and in retaliation placed a series of bans on Turkish goods and travel to Turkey. 
Strained ties were fixed over the summer after Erdoğan sent a letter to Putin stating his regret over the incident. 

The two leaders have since then met three times, firstly in St. Petersburg in mid-August, then in China early September on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit and most recently in Istanbul on Oct. 10 on the sidelines of the 23rd World Energy Congress.