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Turkey’s push for Russia-Ukraine talks gained no support, fell through, Erdogan says

The president said the crises "in Syria, Yemen, Libya and Ukraine have shown that the current international system completely lacks effectiveness"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  AP Photo/ Manu Fernandez
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
© AP Photo/ Manu Fernandez

ANTALYA, March 1. /TASS/. Turkey's initiatives to find a peaceful solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have not succeeded due to lack of support, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the opening of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

"The Ukrainian crisis has moved into its third year. The Istanbul [peace] process was kicked off here in Antalya. At that time, hopes for peace reached a new level. But unfortunately, due to lack of necessary support, our efforts went bust. The historic opportunity to achieve peace, prevent destruction and save tens of thousands of lives was essentially missed, or rather sabotaged," he said.

The president said the crises "in Syria, Yemen, Libya and Ukraine have shown that the current international system completely lacks effectiveness."

"But more than anywhere else, the bankruptcy of this rule-based system is evident in Gaza. What is happening in Gaza is definitely not a war, it is an attempt at genocide. The UN Security Council, international organizations have not taken steps to stop the bloodshed," Erdogan said.

Turkey’s peace efforts

In March 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba on the sidelines of a diplomatic conference in Antalya. The meeting was proposed by then Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. However, those talks did not yield any substantial results. After that, a round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in Istanbul with Turkish support. Those talks produced an initialed treaty proposal, but it never materialized.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that Russia is still open to talks on Ukraine, but after the Istanbul talks fell through in March 2022, Moscow won’t make the first step.