* Photo: TCCB / Murat Çetinmühürdar
President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the public following the cabinet meeting at the Presidential complex in Ankara yesterday (March 15).
The President announced that Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will first visit Russia, then Ukraine amid the ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the war between the two countries.
Referring to Turkey's role in this context, Erdoğan said, "The Ukraine crisis has reminded us that it is not a choice but an obligation for Turkey to be strong in the political, economic, and military fields and to be in a position to support its friends and brothers beyond its self-sufficiency".
Erdoğan added that he would meet with President of Poland Andrzej Duda on Wednesday (today, March 16) in the capital city of Ankara.
Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu's visit to Russia and Ukraine came days after a tripartite meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on March 10 on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Turkey.
While the two sides agreed to negotiate further over the conflict, they failed to make progress in declaring a ceasefire.
Çavuşoğlu in Moscow
Arriving in Moscow, the capital city of Russia, on the 21st day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Turkey's Foreign Minister has shared the following social media post, announcing that he has arrived in the city:
Following Antalya, we are in Moscow to continue our diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Ukraine crisis.
Antalya'nın ardından, #Ukrayna krizine çözüm bulunması için diplomatik çabalarımızı sürdürmek üzere #Moskova'dayız.
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) March 15, 2022
Following Antalya, we are in #Moscow to continue our diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the #Ukraine crisis. pic.twitter.com/Ky6JXkIVqt
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also announced that Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov and Turkey's Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu will meet in Moscow today, saying: "On the forthcoming visit to Russia by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu: The ministers will exchange views on the current state of affairs in the intra-Ukrainian crisis."
On the other side, the talks between Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to resume today, said Ukraine's lead negotiator Mikhail Podolyak, as reported by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
What happened?
Earlier on February 24, explosions were reported in several Ukrainian provinces, including the capital Kyiv, after Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced a 'special military operation' in the Donbas region.
Tensions had started escalating late last year when Ukraine, the US and its allies accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine. They claimed Russia was preparing to invade its western neighbor, which was consistently rejected by Moscow.
Defying threats of sanctions by the West, Moscow officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states in late February, followed by the start of a military operation in Ukraine on February 24.
President Vladimir Putin said the operation aims to protect people "subjected to genocide" by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine, while calling on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.
CLICK - bianet news on Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Russia's war on Ukraine has been met with outrage from the international community, with the European Union (EU), the UK and the US implementing a range of economic sanctions against Russia.
At least 636 civilians have been killed and 1,125 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Over 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the estimates of United Nations (UN). (SD)
