(MEE) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed in Russia on Tuesday for his first meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin as part of a bid to heal their bitter feud over Ankara’s downing of a Russian warplane late last year.
As Erdogan set off, he was reported to have said: “Russian is a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria.” In comments translated into Russian, he reiterated, “The problem needs to be solved with help of joint steps between Russia and Turkey.”
Russia and Turkey had reportedly clinched a deal to normalise relations during secret talks in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, following mediation by figures including a prominent Turkish businessman and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
According to the Hurriyet daily, Turkey had started putting feelers out to Russia to end the crisis in June, through Cavit Caglar, a textile investor, but did not specify when the rapprochement was agreed.
Caglar is believed to be on good terms with the leader of Russia’s Caucasus region of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, who, in turn, has good access to Putin’s powerful foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov.
Erdogan’s visit to Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month, which sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey’s relations with the West.
“This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate, and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation salute Mr Putin and all Russians,” Erdogan said in further comments to Russian state media.
As Erdogan was preparing to fly to Russia, his Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag, told reporters during a televised briefing that the US should not “sacrifice” relations with Turkey over its failure to extradite 75-year-old Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the failed coup and wants to bring to trial.
“If the US does not deliver (Gulen), they will sacrifice relations with Turkey for the sake of a terrorist,” Bozdag said.
Gulen, who has lived in the US since 1999, strongly denies Ankara’s accusations and last Friday his lawyer said that Turkey had failed to provide “a scintilla” of proof to support its claim.
Despite this, Turkey has lashed out at its Western allies for allegedly failing to show sufficient solidarity in the wake of the coup during which more than 240 people were killed.
Putin, meanwhile, was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support and, unlike his Western counterparts, has not expressed concern about the widespread crackdown on alleged Gulen supporters, some 16,000 of whom have been arrested since the coup.
“While Turkish-Russian ties are subject to their own uncertainties, this deterioration of relations with Western powers could accelerate a Turkish-Russian rapprochement,” said analysts from the European Council on Foreign Relations.
From break up to make up
Relations between Russia and Turkey in recent years have been mixed. While the two had signed key trade deals and hundreds of thousands of Russian tourists were travelling to Turkey each year, the situation in Syria did complicate matters: Moscow has been backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara has long backed the rebels who oppose his rule.
Russia’s decision to intervene directly in Syria last September with a bombing campaign in support of Assad, transformed the balance of the Syrian civil war, to Turkey’s consternation. Then, in November, Turkey shot down one of Russia’s fighter jets near the border. Erdogan claimed the plane had ventured into Turkish airspace although Russia denied this.
In response, Putin slapped economic sanctions on Turkey and launched a blistering war of words with Erdogan that seemed to damage ties irrevocably. Projects such as the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey were all put on ice, with trade between the two countries falling 43 percent to $6.1 bn in January-May. Turkey’s tourism industry was also hard hit and visitor numbers from Russia fell by 93 percent.
But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and immediately rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey, signalling that Moscow would also end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms.
Now, following the failed 15 July coup in NATO-member Turkey, analysts say that ties between the two sides could be bolstered further – especially with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union.
“What we are going to see is a longer-lasting but more pragmatic type of relationship built not on a personal friendship or ideology but on common material interests,” said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center
This article (Putin and Erdogan Meet In Attempt to Mend Feud Between Russia and Turkey) by MEE and agencies originally appeared on MiddleEastEye.net and was used with permission. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.