Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan received the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Ankara on Monday, coinciding with the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and just one week after Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky visited Turkey and harshly criticised the negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
Lavrov, who had previously held talks in the Turkish capital with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, met with Erdoğan in a closed-door meeting that lasted an hour and a half, according to numerous media outlets in Turkey. Details of the meeting have not been released, but the Turkish president probably once again offered to organise peace negotiations in Turkey to end the conflict, as he did in a speech on Monday.
In that speech, released in a video, Erdoğan recalled that Turkey is a member of NATO that at the same time maintains good relations with both Ukraine and Russia and that therefore it can play an important mediating role in the conflict, and he claimed to have proposed peace negotiations in Turkey to Zelensky himself during the visit that the Ukrainian president made last week to Ankara.
Turkey: ‘We want to put an end to this devastating war as soon as possible’
Previously, following a meeting between Lavrov and Fidan in the Turkish capital, the Turkish foreign minister stated during a joint press conference that Turkey supports the initiative of US President Donald Trump to end the war, but added that the negotiations must involve both parties in the conflict.
‘We believe a solution can be reached through negotiations involving both sides,’ Fidan said. ‘Turkey is always ready to assume a facilitating or acelerating role… Our goal is to end this devastating war as soon as possible and heal the wounds in the region,’ he added.
For his part, Lavrov said that Russia is ready to negotiate but that it will only end the war if a peace agreement is reached that is in line with the interests of the Kremlin, and accused Ukraine of having taken advantage of previous ceasefire announcements to strengthen its positions. ‘We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that is convenient for the Russian Federation,’ said Lavrov, who claimed that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine was reached in Istanbul in April 2022, but that it was blocked by then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in order to weaken Russia.
Russia’s foreign minister also confirmed during the joint press conference in Ankara that he informed Fidan about the negotiations held last week in Riyadh with US representatives. ‘We have informed our Turkish friends about the Russian-US talks held on 18 February in Riyadh, which are greatly appreciated as an opportunity to finally hold a normal dialogue, despite the many contradictions that, of course, persist,’ Lavrov said.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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