Turkish President Recep Erdogan blamed Western countries for the “provocation” against Russia in Belgrade on Wednesday and stressed the need to maintain a balanced stance.
“I can say very openly that I do not consider the current attitude of the West to be correct. […] The West is following a policy based on provocation”declared the Turkish head of state during a press conference with his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, in response to a question about the energy crisis in Europe.
“When you try to fight a war in such a provocative way, you cannot achieve the desired results. We, Turkey, have always maintained a balanced policy between Russia and Ukraine.”Erdoğan stressed.
Despite having supplied military drones (unmanned flying devices) to kyiv, Turkey has refused to adhere to Western sanctions against Russia following the launch of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
On Tuesday, the Turkish president stated that the gas crisis in Europe is the result of a European policy of standing up to the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin, leading him to use this raw material as a weapon.
“Of course, Europe reaps what it has sown. From the beginning, Europe’s stance against Putin, with the imposition of sanctions, has taken Putin, whether he likes it or not, to the point of saying: ‘If you do this, I will do this,'” Erdogan said while still in Ankara, moments before heading to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Putin uses all the possibilities and weapons at his disposal. One of the most important is natural gas. […] It’s a shame, we didn’t want to, but this is happening and I think that, this winter, Europe is going to have some really serious problems. We in Turkey will not have that problem,” she said.
Ankara has clearly spoken out against the Russian invasion and in favor of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula (annexed by Russia in 2014), but at the same time has made numerous mediation efforts between the belligerents.
In August, Erdogan first met with Putin in the Russian city of Sochi and two weeks later with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Lviv.
Earlier, in July, Turkish diplomacy played an important role in unblocking the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian fertilizers, with Istanbul serving as the stage for the signing of agreements on the export of grain and agricultural products through the Black Sea, signed by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.
Source: TSF
