Ankara is facing Moscow on the issue of the Ukrainian crisis, as the Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected the recognition of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and called on Russia to respect the country’s territorial integrity.
Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian troops to move to Donbass, calling them “peacekeepers”, with the United States warning that Russia is creating the conditions for war.
“We consider Russia’s decision unacceptable and reject it,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We reaffirm our commitment to maintaining political unity in Ukraine and its territorial integrity and call on all parties to act in accordance with common sense and respect for international law,” the statement said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a tour of Africa, is scheduled to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the day, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Both Erdo .an and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu have not yet made a statement on the matter.
Zelensky called on the country’s partners for “clean and effective support.”
“It is very important to see now who our real friends and partners are and who will continue to frighten the Russian Federation only in words,” he said in a televised address overnight.
NATO member Turkey, located south of Ukraine under the Black Sea, has supplied Kiev with armed drones and has sought to boost defense and economic co-operation. It is worth noting, however, that Erdogan has stepped up his cooperation with Russia in order to turn Turkey into a regional power without Western hegemony, according to Ahval.
In 2019, Turkey procured the Russian S-400 anti-missile system, which provoked reactions from its NATO allies. This purchase also resulted in the US excluding Ankara from the F-35 procurement program.
Russia is also one of the biggest “customers” in Turkey’s tourism industry, on which Erdogan relies to boost his country’s suffocating economy.
The Turkish president also has in the back of his mind the military and political influence of Russia in Syria, where Turkey is fighting Kurdish fighters whom it describes as terrorists.
Turkey is also heavily dependent on Russia for gas supplies.
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