ANKARA, August 14. /TASS/. Ankara has never supported the anti-Russian sanctions and will never support anti-Iranian ones either, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
"Turkey has never supported any sanctions against Russia. We have already said that we are not going to support sanctions against Iran either," he said at a joint news conference with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
He called on Washington to drop its "erroneous position on sanctions imposed on Turkey." "They must drop their threats, otherwise there can be no progress in relations between the United States and Turkey," he stressed.
Lavrov met with Cavusoglu after attending a meeting of Turkish ambassadors and permanent representatives at international organizations.
Lavrov said Moscow appreciates Turkey’s independent foreign policy and Ankara’s refusal to join anti-Russian sanctions.
"In foreign affairs Russia and Turkey pursue independent policies," he said. "We appreciate our partners’ refusal to join anti-Russian sanctions."
Lavrov said the situation in the world remained alarming.
"It will not be an exaggeration to say we are at a turning point of world history - a phase of transition from bipolar and multi-polar models and patterns to building a polycentric world order, which is being formed as an objective reality," he added.
"Resistance to objective trends is obvious: the methods of sanctions, threats, blackmailing and dictating are widely in use," Lavrov said. "In this situation one can even feel that some of our Western partners have lost the culture of diplomacy, but I hope that the objective reality will let reason prevail and we will get to the principles contained in the UN Charter, which imply collective work for the solution of global problems on the condition of respect for the sovereign equality of states and non-intervention in their internal affairs."