Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Western countries were only
making things worse in the Ukraine crisis. He made the remarks on Friday
after returning from a visit to Kiev.
“Unfortunately, the West has so far not made any contribution to solving
this problem. I can say they are only making things worse," Erdogan said, as
quoted by the Daily Sabah, Saturday (5/2/2022).
Erdogan added that US President Joe Biden had not been able to show a
positive approach to this process until now. The Turkish leader said he
wanted Ankara to be given a role as a mediator in the current tensions
between Russia and the West.
Last month, Erdogan invited Russian President Vladimir Putin and his
Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to meet in Turkey. Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian media on Friday that Putin's
visit to Turkey was in the works.
"We hope it will happen as soon as possible," Peskov said. Peskov did not
rule out a future Putin-Zelensky meeting, but said it was "very difficult"
to discuss the issue at this time.
Erdogan, however, is optimistic about bringing Putin and Zelensky together.
"Now we will set the date. Then, hopefully, we would like to have this
meeting to bring Putin and Zelensky together at a high level.
Our deal with Zelensky is in this direction," he said on Friday. Russia has
repeatedly denied claims by NATO members that it is preparing to attack
Ukraine.
The US and European Union, however, have threatened to impose new sanctions
on Russia if it attacks its neighbour.
Moscow wants the US-led NATO bloc to provide legally binding guarantees that
it will not expand closer to Russia's borders.
NATO rejected Russia's request to formally abandon its "open door policy" to
admit new members, but, along with the US, offered other steps to reduce
tensions in Eastern Europe.
