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May 5, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Putin hails return
to “normal partner” relations with Turkey
ties is complete,” Putin told a news conference on May 3. “We are getting back to normal partner interaction.”
The talks were billed as focused on the situation in Syria, with the Russian leader advancing Mos- cow’s efforts to establish peacekeeper-secured buffer or “de-escalation” zones amid the conflict. This, despite the fact Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in the conflict, while Ankara supports some rebel groups attempting to overthrow his regime.
Putin told reporters on May 3 that US President Donald Trump had told him in a phone call the previous day that he supported the idea. But a sticking point for Washington could be Iran’s role on the ground in Syria. Trump has been outspoken in opposing Tehran’s attempts to gain influence via conflicts in the Middle East, including those in Syria and Yemen.
The meetings between Erdogan and Putin were the first since Erdogan narrowly triumphed in an April 16 referendum paving the way for a pow- erful executive presidency. Some EU member states have responded to the victory by pointing out that Erdogan’s new sweeping powers are not in line with Turkey’s previously expressed aspira- tions to accede into the European bloc, but there was no such hesitation from Putin who used the meeting to once again congratulate Erdogan on his victory in the popular poll and promote the Moscow-Ankara axis.
Turkey and Russia experienced a nine-month crash in bilateral ties after Turkish fighter planes shot down a Russian fighter-bomber that had strayed in Turkish airspace in late 2015. Putin and Erdogan have now reached a modus vivendi
over Syria and are rebuilding bilateral trade and investment links.
“Mr President [Erdogan] and I adhere to the view- point that the Syrian conflict can be settled exclusive- ly by political and diplomatic means,” Putin told the news conference. Russia and Turkey could together “change the destiny of the whole region”, added Er- dogan, who last met Putin in Moscow in March.
The last-minute scheduling of the latest meeting indicated that the presidents wanted to discuss the Syrian conflict as a matter of urgency before Erdogan meets US President Donald Trump and attends the Nato summit in Brussels on May 16-17. A day earlier, Putin also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sochi to discuss Syria and other issues.
Perhaps with an eye on what Putin might offer Erdogan, Merkel on May 3 made conciliatory com- ments towards Ankara, saying despite reserva- tions over the future of post-referendum Turkey, the EU should not push away such an important partner. Erdogan on May 2 threatened to say “goodbye” to Brussels unless it opened new chap- ters in Turkey’s accession process, an issue for now the EU is clearly dodging.
Last obstacles
The Turkish president arrived in Sochi intent on removing the last obstacles to restoring full trade ties with Russia and enabling the full normalisa- tion of relations. Encouragingly for Turkey, once the meeting with Putin was over, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced that Russia will resume grain exports to Turkey within the next few days after resolving issues, such
as prohibitively high tariffs, with Ankara that had been restricting supplies, Reuters reported. How- ever, Dvorkovich also reportedly said that some Russian restrictions on tomato imports from Tur- key would remain in place “in some form” for the next three to five years.
On leaving Turkey for Russia, Erdogan, according to TASS, remarked: “If we want to reach $100bn