Putin and Erdogan pledge reset after diplomatic rift

Saint Petersburg, RUSSIAN FEDERATION | AFP |

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday pledged to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November.

Erdogan’s visit to Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that sparked a purge of opponents and cast a shadow over Turkey’s relations with the West.

“We lived through a very complicated moment in the relations between our states and we very much want, and I feel our Turkish friends want, to overcome the difficulties,” Putin told journalists at a joint press conference.

He insisted it would take “painstaking work” and “some time” to return to previous trade levels as Russia rolls back punishing economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis.

Erdogan said he hoped relations would become “more robust” and stressed how important it was that Putin offered his support after the coup.

“We will bring our relations back to the old level and even beyond,” he said.

The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 on the Syrian border last November saw Putin slap sanctions on Turkey and launch a blistering war of words that dealt serious damage to burgeoning ties.

But in a shock reversal in late June, Putin accepted a letter from Erdogan expressing regret over the incident as an apology.

He 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.

Turkey has repeatedly pressed Washington to extradite Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the failed coup, and on Tuesday said it could suspend bilateral ties over the issue.

Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone Erdogan offering support after the coup attempt and shares none of the concerns of EU leaders about the ensuing crackdown.

Back to business? 

Relations between Turkey and Russia — two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East — have long been complicated.

Yet before the plane crisis, Moscow and Ankara managed to prevent disputes on Syria and Ukraine from harming cooperation on issues like the TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe and a Russian-built nuclear power station in Turkey.

Those projects were put on ice with trade between the two countries plunging 43 percent in January-May this year to $6.1 billion, and Turkey’s tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93 percent.

With Turkey’s outlook flagging and Russia mired in economic crisis due to low oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, both men want to get business started again.

Erdogan said he wanted to see the TurkStream project “done as fast as possible”, while Putin said construction could start “in the nearest future” and that the restoration of business ties would be done “in phases”.

The Turkish leader also insisted the two sides were once again targeting an ambitious trade turnover of $100 billion by 2024.

But Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told media it could take up to two years to fully restore pre-crisis trade levels.

Skirting Syria 

A previous uptick in relations between Turkey and Russia 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 clampdowns on human rights.

But after such a bitter dispute — which saw Putin accuse Erdogan of profiting from an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State group — it will take a lot for the pair to repair relations.

The two strongmen conspicuously skirted one major issue that divides them — the war in Syria.

Russia is carrying out a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader.