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THE LEADERS OF Russia and Turkey have buried the hatchet, pledging to restore the ‘Moscow-Ankara axis’ after almost a year of cool relations that at one point threatened war.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russian trade sanctions on Turkey would be phased out “step by step”.
“The priority is to get back to the pre-crisis level of co-operation,” he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a summit in St Petersburg.
Their relations cooled sharply last November, when Turkey shot down a Russian bomber on the Syrian border. It is Erdogan’s first foreign visit since an attempted coup last month.
He has since launched a far-reaching crackdown on the armed forces and other state institutions, and cast a shadow and over Turkey’s relations with its western Nato allies.
Psychologically important
Speaking in St Petersburg, Erdogan thanked Mr Putin, saying a call from the Russian leader after the coup “meant a lot psychologically”.
He said “the Moscow-Ankara friendship axis will be restored”.
After Turkey shot down the Su-24 jet in November, Russia imposed trade sanctions and suspended Russian package tours to Turkey.
Russia has now decided to resume those package tours, which represent an important source of income for Turkey’s tourist industry.
Complicated moment
At a press conference after the encounter, Putin said:
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.
The authoritarian Russian leader insisted it would take “painstaking work” and “some time” to return to previous trade links. In a statement, he said:
I know I was one of the first to call you and give support about overcoming the internal political crisis caused by the attempted coup.
“I would like to repeat: it is our position of principle that we always stand up against any attempts to revert to unconstitutional actions.”
Both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis.
Erdogan said that he hoped Russian-Turkish 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, both sides are determined and have the necessary will.
The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by a Turkish F-16 over the Syrian border last fall saw a furious war of words between the mercurial leaders, that seemed to irrevocably damage burgeoning ties between the nations.
Moscow and Ankara were hurling unbridled insults at each other as recently as May.
Russia’s state-run television network attacked Mr. Erdogan as “deceitful” and “unrestrained” – while the Turkish leader accused Russia of engaging in “cheap slander.”
Yet the Kremlin never misses a chance to try to exploit the disagreements in the NATO alliance brought about by the US response to Turkey’s failed coup.
In a shock reversal late June, Putin accepted a letter expressing regret over the incident from Erdogan as an apology, and signalled Moscow would end measures against Turkish food imports and construction firms.
There are fears in Western capitals that NATO-member Turkey could draw even closer to Moscow in the wake of the failed 15 July coup attempt.
Erdogan bluntly makes it clear he feels let down by the EU and the United States, whom many in the Turkish administration blame for the coup.
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.
Back to business?
Relations between Turkey and Russia – two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East – have rarely been straightforward.
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% in January-May this year to $6.1 billion and Turkey’s tourism industry seeing visitor numbers from Russia fall by 93%.
Now with Russia mired in an 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 said that he now wanted to see the TurkStream project “done as fast as possible”, while Putin said construction could start “in the nearest future”.
The Turkish leader also insisted that the two sides were once again targeting a very ambitious trade turnover of $100 billion by 2024.
Skirting Syria
The earlier 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 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.
The two strongmen leaders conspicuously skirted one major issue dividing them and that lay at the heart of their falling out – the war in Syria.
Putin and Erdogan said they would start discussing the conflict after the press conference, but the Russian leader insisted both sides were committed to finding a peaceful solution.
Russia is flying a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader.
Erdogan insisted in an interview with Russian media ahead of the talks that Assad must still go – a position opposed by Putin – but said that the conflict could now become the focus for renewed cooperation between the two sides.
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Why do the journal not name the tramps that have been charged with the vicious assault on Tom Niland?
@Gavin Linden: they will be named soon enough.
@OConnelj: They are named every where else though.
@Gavin Linden: I didn’t know that Gavin, I haven’t looked.
@OConnelj: when you say “everywhere else” do you mean reputable news sources or some posts on social media?
@OConnelj: RTÉ have named them on their site
@Gavin Linden: they are named in the article about them
In all honesty, though, who gives rice milk to children and thinks it’s a healthy choice?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: It’s scary that they even have to tell people this, but I remember some poor Belgian child dying a few years ago cause their vegan parents somehow thought it was a good idea to wean them on to the like of this. Remember this is a world where they need to put warnings on microwave manuals, to not put animals in them.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: people who’s children have an intolerance to diary which is very common. The problem is people try alternatives without consulting a nutritionist. Probably due to the expense.
@Rmaybe: goats milk is a safe alternative, the makeup of goats milk is the nearest of all milks to breast milk.
The world is gone mad isn’t it?
@Paul Gorry: is it though? Was it always? And now we are of an age to see it for what it really is?
@Dearbhla O Reilly: caps of to you Dearbhla very fair point.
Cows milk is for calves. I’ll take my chances with arsenic atm
@Susan McMahon: cows milk may be for calves but if you think drinking something natural like that is wrong how to you reconcile drinking milk from rice. Rice! Surely something that can only exist as a result of an industrial manufacturing process can’t be better than drinking cows milk? Does your cat feel the same way? I mean how do you even milk rice? Their nipples must be tiny.
@Susan McMahon: I’m sure you drank your fair share of milk when you were young, so if it’s only for calves, that would make you a cow now.
@Susan McMahon: cows milk is for calves. Correct. There is no evidence to show that cows milk is harmful for humans. Also correct
@Susan McMahon: It’s been good enough for humans for the last 10,000 years. So much so that we’ve almost lost our adult lactose intolerance that other mammals keep. Now that’s progress!
@Ivan Connolly: Cats have lactose intolerance. Even though they may enjoy the odd plate of milk, they tend to have nasty diarrhoea afterwards.
@Susan McMahon: Thats not what the article is about, it about possibly poisoning children with oat extract.
Vegan warriors trying to push their way on us .. if I want a sizzling steak with cheese and a big pint of milk I will have it so pipe down . 95% of the country like it that way
@Gerrard: who are you telling to pipe down? Reading through the comments it doesn’t look like anyone is trying to dictate to you.
This got a mention on Joe Duffy yesterday as a viable alternative.
@Pat Barry: As part of a balanced diet, rice milk can be fine. As a substitute for infant formula or breast milk – not so much.
Rice extract can be a usual diet supplement. It is not milk, nr is any of the other overly prices “milks” being sold. It is extract from nuts.
The arrogance of people to decide to feed a child a substance that can kill the child due to their beliefs is frightening.
Not surprising as there are plenty of anti vaxers out there.
As for vegans, fine if you want to be one, off you go. Just please do not hold a high and mighty attitude and lecture us. Who choose not to be. I respect your decision, not respect mine. I dont want to be told that I am eating a baby, when eating meat. I am eating a farm animal. Possibly a young farm animal. Not a baby. Besides all you do is make me more determined to eat more meat. I try and eat as much free range and ethically farmed meat as possible. It is not always possible on a pension. I am not a middle class professional earning good money.
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