Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan spoke with Vladimir Putin and confirmed on Sunday that Turkey is ready to host direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, as proposed by the Russian president, with the aim of achieving a ceasefire and permanent peace between the two countries.
Turkish agencies reported that the offer was made by Erdoğan during a telephone conversation held this morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Saturday night and during a televised message proposed organising direct negotiations without preconditions with Ukraine on 15 May in Istanbul aimed at ending the war, although without accepting Ukraine’s demand for a 30-day ceasefire.
‘We are declaring our victory and announcing that we have declared a ceasefire for the third time. Turkey has made enormous efforts for peace. We propose that direct negotiations with Ukraine resume in Istanbul on 15 May without preconditions,’ Putin said, assuring that Ukraine did not accept the ceasefire against energy infrastructure proposed by the US or the one he himself had previously proposed for Easter or for Russia’s Victory Day celebrations.
‘Tomorrow (Sunday) I will have a conversation with President Erdoğan. I ask him to provide these conditions for the negotiations to be held in Turkey. I hope he will confirm his desire to contribute to the search for peace in Ukraine. We are determined to continue serious negotiations with Ukraine,’ Putin said, quoted by several Turkish media outlets, including Hürriyet.
Erdoğan and Putin discuss peace negotiations in Turkey
In the conversation that followed this morning, Erdoğan reportedly expressed his satisfaction with Putin’s offer and confirmed that Turkey is ready to host negotiations leading to a permanent solution in the region, while stressing that a prior ceasefire would create the necessary conditions for such peace negotiations to succeed, according to the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Office.
In another statement, the Kremlin confirmed the telephone conversation between Putin and the Turkish president this morning, in which the initiative to resume direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey was discussed in detail. The statement issued from Moscow said that Erdoğan expressed his full support for Putin’s proposal and was willing to organise peace talks in Istanbul. ‘The Turkish side will provide all possible assistance to organise and conduct negotiations aimed at achieving a lasting peace,’ the Kremlin said.
The Turkish president then reportedly held another telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in which he emphasised that a ’historic turning point has been reached in efforts to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, that this opportunity must be seized, and that Turkey is ready to provide all kinds of support, including hosting the negotiations, to achieve a cessation of hostilities and a lasting peace,’ the Turkish Presidency said in a statement.
Putin’s proposal to organise direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul has also been welcomed by Trump but met with caution by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said on Sunday that Kiev is willing to negotiate but only if Moscow accepts the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire starting tomorrow, Monday, as proposed by several European leaders.
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Edited and reviewed by:
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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