“Turkey will not recognize any measure that would undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Erdogan called for a “solution based on the Minsk Agreements” of 2014 and 2015, while the threat of a Russian attack in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine is growing.
The Minsk agreements, signed by Kiev and separatists under the auspices of Paris, Berlin and Moscow, have helped reduce the intensity of the conflict, which has killed more than 14,000 people, according to the latest UN report.
The Turkish head of state reaffirmed his “commitment to continuing contacts and diplomatic consultations” and assured that “Turkey is ready to play its part in reducing tensions,” the Turkish presidency said.
For his part, Vladimir Putin stressed, during this conversation, “the objective necessity of the decision taken in the face of the aggression of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas and their categorical refusal to implement the Minsk agreements,” the Kremlin said in a statement. announcement.
The two leaders “agreed to continue contacts in different ways,” according to the same source.
Erdogan had already ruled “unacceptable” on Tuesday Moscow’s recognition of the pro-Russian separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
However, on the plane with which he returned from Senegal on Tuesday night, the Turkish president clarified that he does not intend to break with either of the two protagonists.
“It is not possible. We have political and military relations with Russia. We also have political, military and economic relations with Ukraine,” he told reporters accompanying him.
“We want the issue to be resolved without having to choose between the two,” he insisted.
NATO member Turkey is close to Kiev, where it specifically sold military drones.
But it also depends heavily on Moscow for its energy and grain supplies, among other things.
Ankara also acquired a Russian S-400 anti-missile defense system.
For this reason, Erdogan offered his mediation to avoid a conflict between these two countries, which border Turkey as well as the Black Sea.
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