Erdogan wants to urge Putin to be ‘the peacemaker’ in Ukraine


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he wants to ask his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to be “the peacemakerin Ukraine during a telephone exchange scheduled for the next few days, according to remarks reported Friday, March 25 by the Turkish press.


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The head of state told reporters on his return flight from the NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday that he would tell Vladimir Putin: “You must now be the peacemaker (…) You must make an honorable gesture“. Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured that Russia and Ukraine agreed on four out of six negotiating points, including kyiv’s renunciation of NATO, the removal of obstacles to the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, the disarmament and security guarantees. “But Ukraine is of course a state. It is out of the question (for Kyiv) to agree to complete disarmament, but the Ukrainian side is ready to compromise“Assured the Turkish president, who clarified that the discussions were more difficult on the status of the separatist region of Donbass (east) and that of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. The Turkish president must meet on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the Turkish press.

refuse to line up

An ally of kyiv and a member of NATO, Turkey has been trying since the start of the conflict in Ukraine to facilitate mediation between Moscow and kyiv, but has refused to align itself with Western sanctions targeting Russia. NATO leaders on Thursday approved the creation of new battlegroups in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, as well as the reinforcement of the four already formed in Poland and the three Baltic countries. US President Joe Biden has also promised a “responseif Russia, as Ukrainians and Westerners fear, uses chemical weapons.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also praised the efforts made by French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he has experienced great tension in recent years, saying that he is “one of the most active leaders in NATO at the moment“.


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