Putin, Erdogan emerge all smiles from Ankara meeting
As Turkey becomes more alienated from the West, Moscow is filling the gap by extending its friendship — and more — to Ankara.
Days before the meeting this week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, the press in both countries was busy discussing the potential issues on the agenda: Syria, the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum, Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 defense system and — last, but very important to Turkey — Russia’s embargo on Turkish tomatoes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov only added to the speculation by saying the day before the meeting that the visit had “solely pragmatic goals.”
On Sept. 28, Putin arrived in Ankara for his second visit to Turkey since the two countries began normalizing relations last year after Turkish forces downed a Russian jet in November 2015. From the airport, Putin headed to a working dinner with Erdogan that lasted almost two hours. Afterward, the talks continued in an expanded format. Putin was accompanied by a delegation including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, special envoy on Syria Alexander Lavrentyev, Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller and Alexey Likhachev, the director general of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp.
A glance at the list of participants gives a sense of why the Russians came to Ankara.
