Putin offers to restore closer ties with Turkey

Russia is ready to restore economic co-operation and other ties with Turkey, President Vladimir Putin has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg.It is Mr Erdogan’s first foreign visit since an attempted coup last month.Mr Erdogan thanked Mr Putin, saying “your call straight after the coup attempt was very welcome”.Russian-Turkish relations soured last November when Turkey shot down a Russian bomber on the Syrian border.The visit comes as Turkey’s ties with the West have cooled over criticism of Mr Erdogan’s purge of alleged coup-plotters.Before leaving Turkey, Mr Erdogan referred to President Putin as his “friend” and said he wanted to open a new page in relations with Russia.Erdogan unnerves West with Putin visit”This visit strikes me as a new milestone in our bilateral relations, starting again from a clean slate,” Mr Erdogan told Russia’s Tass news agency.Mr Putin said their talks would cover “the whole range of our relations… including restoring economic ties, combating terrorism”.After Turkey shot down the Su-24 jet Russia imposed trade sanctions and suspended Russian package tours to Turkey. In June, the Kremlin said Mr Erdogan had apologised for the downing of the jet and had sent a message expressing “sympathy and deep condolences” to the family of the dead pilot.Then, after the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey, Mr Putin expressed support for Mr Erdogan. He did not criticise Mr Erdogan’s crackdown on political opponents and purge of alleged “plotters” in state institutions.The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford says Russia is keen to capitalise on Turkey’s cooling relations with the West following the failed coup.Turkey’s ties with its Nato allies – especially the US – have been strained by disagreements over the Syrian civil war. Turkey’s priority is to weaken the Kurdish separatist forces, while the US is focusing on destroying so-called Islamic State (IS).Erdogan was angered by criticism from the EU and the US of the mass detentions of suspected plotters. He demanded that the US extradite Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric whom he accuses of organising the coup. But the US says Turkey must provide solid evidence before such a move can be considered.Turkey’s Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag, says more than 26,000 people have been detained. They back opposing sides in Syria. Turkey is furious at the scale of Russian air support for Syrian government forces, as Mr Erdogan reviles Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Russia has accused Turkey of backing Islamist anti-Assad groups, including some accused of “terrorism” in Russia.Turkey is at war with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the PKK’s Syrian allies. Mr Erdogan has accused Russia of arming the PKK.For centuries Russia and Turkey have been rivals for influence in the Caucasus and Black Sea region.Turkey was also angered by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, accusing Moscow of violating the rights of Crimean Tatars. The Muslim Tatars have long had close ties to Turkey.But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a personal expression of regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology and quickly rolled back a ban on the sale of package holidays to Turkey and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms.Now in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, there are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow — with Erdogan bluntly making it clear he feels let down by the United States and the European Union.Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the scruples of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown.In the latest sign of rocky ties, Turkey’s justice minister on Tuesday warned that the United States will “sacrifice relations” unless it extradites Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the failed coup.Relations between Turkey and Russia — two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East — have never been straightforward and their predecessor Ottoman and Russian empires fought three centuries of war.Yet before the plane downing crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine harming strategic cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey.Those projects were all put on ice with trade between the two countries falling 43 percent to $6.1 billion in January-May this year and Turkey’s tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent.Now with Russia mired in economic crisis due to Western sanctions over Ukraine and low oil prices along with Turkey’s outlook flagging, both men want to get business started again.Erdogan told Russian media that he wants to “immediately take steps” towards getting the TurkStream project — that was to have pumped 31.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year — going again and to finish the Akkuyu power plant.The earlier uptick in relations was built on a macho friendship between Putin and Erdogan, two combative leaders in their early 60s credited with restoring confidence to their nations in the wake of financial crises but also criticised for clamping down on human rights.But after such a bitter dispute — which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of stabbing Russia in the back and profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group — it will take a lot for the pair to reheat relations.”What we are going to see is a longer-lasting but more pragmatic type of relationship built not on a personal friendship or ideology but on common material interests,” said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center.Russia, which is conducting a bombing campaign in support of Erdogan’s foe President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, transformed the balance of the Syrian civil war last September when it intervened militarily, to Turkey’s consternation.Erdogan insisted to Russian media that Assad must still go — a position opposed by Putin — but did say that the conflict at the heart of the falling out with Moscow could now also become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides.”Russian is a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria,” Erdogan said in comments translated into Russian. “The problem needs to be solved with help of joint steps between Russia and Turkey.”