ANKARA, September 19. /TASS/. Almost all Turkish banks are virtually trying to stop servicing transactions related to Russia and transfer them to only one local financial institution, an informed source in the field of Turkish financial consulting told TASS.

"Based on the current situation, almost all Turkish banks virtually want to completely withdraw from transactions with Russia and Belarus. They would like to leave all these transactions to Emlak Katilim Bank in order to protect themselves from possible future problems in the form of restrictions and sanctions," the source said.

The issue concerns private and state-owned Turkish banks that do not have foreign partners, mainly Western ones. Financial institutions with Western participation have already effectively stopped servicing transactions related to Russia.

The source noted that "only Emlak Katilim Bank carries out trading transactions in the Russian ruble/Turkish lira pair".

Earlier, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexey Erkhov, commenting on the situation in the interbank sphere, told TASS that Turkish banks are increasingly "squeezing out companies" involved in the transit of goods to Russia, blocking their transfers and closing their accounts.