Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today conveyed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, his wish to “end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible”.
The conversation, which the Turkish presidency made public through a statement on its Twitter account, also discussed issues related to energy, the fight against terrorism and the agreement for the export of grains from Ukrainian ports.
Erdogan told Putin of his “sincere desire” for an agreement to end the war and praised the results achieved by the grains agreement, brokered in July by Ankara and the European Union (EU).
The Turkish president also suggested to his Russian counterpart to expand the scope of the Ukrainian grain export corridor to other products.
According to a statement by the Turkish presidency, quoted by Anadolu and EFE news agencies, Erdogan proposed to Vladimir Putin to expand the functions of the corridor for the export of Ukrainian grains, to gradually include other food products, as well as other matters cousins.
In the same phone call, the Russian president insisted on the need for full compliance with the grain export agreement from Ukrainian ports and the lifting of blockades on the supply of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin has not yet commented on the content of the conversation between Putin and Erdogan, who is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today.
Erdogan denounced “terrorist attacks” by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Militia (YPG) and called for full implementation of the agreement reached in Sochi in 2019.
He stressed that this agreement included measures for “the withdrawal of terrorists from the border” and reiterated “the importance and priority of clearing the area in a space of up to 30 kilometers along the entire border (between Turkey and Syria)”.
Turkey launched Operation “Sword Claw” on Nov. 21, a bombing campaign against Kurdish groups following the Nov. 13 bombing in the Turkish city of Istanbul that killed six people and injured more than 80.
The Turkish government blamed the PKK for the attack, saying the prime suspect had followed orders from the YPG – the main member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – but both the PKK and the SDF have distanced themselves from the attack and testified their condolences to the victims. .
Source: DN
