As of: February 8, 2024, 2:46 p.m
By: Nail Akkoyun
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Press
Split
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin during their last meeting in Sochi, Russia, in September 2023. © Sergei Karpukhin/Imago
Vladimir Putin's planned visit to Turkey is eagerly awaited.
But the exact date remains a mystery.
Moscow – Vladimir Putin was actually supposed to travel to Turkey in February.
Next Monday (February 12th) was specifically mentioned in the media several times, but this was never officially confirmed.
While the Turkish side said on Thursday (February 8th) that the date might even be postponed, people in Moscow don't want to know anything about a specific date.
Preparations are still ongoing, “dates are being agreed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state agency
Tass
.
He emphasized: “No date has been announced,” so no postponement can be confirmed.
Meeting with Putin: For Erdogan, according to the expert, it is “above all symbolic politics”
Unless Vladimir Putin's unexpected trip comes up, his trip to Turkey is likely to be the first to NATO territory since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
While the economic aspect is likely to be in the foreground for Putin, the meeting will be “above all symbolic political” for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as Dawid Bartelt said in an interview with
fr.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Bartelt heads the Turkey office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Istanbul.
Last weekend, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also commented on Putin's planned visit to Turkey.
The meeting will provide “the opportunity to discuss many issues,” Fidan said on state television channel
TRT Haber
.
He also did not give a date, but emphasized that the Russian president and Erdogan would meet “regularly.”
Erdogan has relations with both Russia and Ukraine.
In particular, Turkey is helping Moscow circumvent Western sanctions, to which it has not joined, by continuing its trade with Russia.
On the other hand, Turkey sells weapons to Ukraine and has acted as a mediator on several occasions - such as in the grain deal.
(nak)