As the Russian and Turkish leaders meet in Sochi, Euronews speaks to an expert about the relationship between the two countries.
ADVERTISEMENTVladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been meeting in Sochi to discuss issues of common interest, including the conflict in Syria.
#Sochi: Russian-Turkish talks https://t.co/pdJyY6tcNApic.twitter.com/qvjwhFGZCg
— President of Russia (@KremlinRussia_E) November 13, 2017
Euronews correspondent Galina Plonskaya is in Moscow to talk to Dr Victor Nadein-Raevsky, Director of the Black Sea Caspian Region Institute of Political and Social Research, about the relationship between the two countries.
Dr Nadein-Raevsky explains:
“Of course Erdogan has come to Russia to continue developing our relationship. Turkey is interested in a very broad cooperation with us on a range of issues. In agriculture, they want a complete re-establishment of the previous relationship. In the construction sector, they want the import of Turkish industrial products. On another issue altogether – Syria – the Turkish side wants security for their borders, for Turkish Kurdistan. And besides that, there’s the question of military collaboration. In addition to all this, the issue of Nagorno Karabach has been raised. The Turks want to talk about it and they would like to take on the role of a mediator. But the Armenians aren’t ready for that.
“Erdogan and his country are interested in the revival of those relationships partly because Turkey has turned out to be pretty much isolated. That’s why, for example, it decided to buy the S-400 advanced missile defence system, because they were prevented from buying Patriot and other similar systems when they wanted to. So the purchase was done out of spite, and we saw the first transfer of money between the two countries.”
Putin’s meeting with Erdogan has been seen as a thaw in relations between the two countries in the wake of tensions following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane back in 2015.