If Turkey is assigned a mediator role following the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ankara will accept the offer to help in the Ukrainian crisis in this capacity and will try to do its part, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Speaking to reporters on his way back from Ukraine where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Erdoğan said that the Western countries were unable to contribute to the solution to the Ukraine-Russia tensions and there are no European leaders fit to resolve it.
“Unfortunately, the West until now has not made any contribution to resolving this issue. I can say they are only making things worse. I attach great importance to the meeting with Mr. Putin regarding this issue. Because, in the meeting with Zelenskyy, I saw that we already had an agreement on these issues. Because at the moment, there is a serious problem in Europe in terms of solving this business,” he said.
“When we look at the situation in the United States, (President Joe) Biden has not yet been able to show a positive approach to this process as of now. In the meetings held by the foreign ministers, no progress towards the result has been recorded yet. We see this clearly in them,” he added.
Praising former German chancellor Angela Merkel and her approach to Ukraine, Erdoğan said Europe was suffering “serious issues at the leadership level” after her departure.
Underlining the importance of his upcoming meeting with Putin, Erdoğan said: “It is our hope that, after our meeting with Mr. Putin, if a mediator role is assigned to us, we will accept to be involved in this work as a mediator, and hopefully we will try to do our part. Meanwhile, (Azerbaijani President) Ilham Aliyev visited Ukraine. Apart from that, (British Prime Minister) Boris Johnson also paid a visit there. We want to compile these visits later and take a step accordingly.”
Erdoğan said that there was a positive response from Moscow to Putin paying a visit to Turkey upon Ankara’s invitation after returning from China.
“We will now set the date. Then, hopefully, we want to hold this meeting in order to bring together Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy at a high level. Our agreement with Mr. Zelenskyy is in this direction. I believe that if we can achieve this at a high level without reducing it to lower levels, the results we see will provide an opportunity for a new solution in the region. This hope arose in me during the meeting with Zelenskyy.”
Erdoğan also underlined the sophisticated nature of the relations between Turkey and Russia. “We currently have serious bilateral relations with Russia. These relationships are not ordinary. The steps to be taken for this are also important. Therefore, I attach great importance to the meeting with Mr. Putin.”
“Of course, the dimension of the issue with Ukraine is much more important. Because the eyes of the world are here right now; Of course, the most important aspect of the event is Donbass. Developments in Donbass, developments along the border, all of these have directed the world’s view to this place as of now,” he added and expressed his hope that the region will not forgo peace. -Agencies
