Erdogan announces that he will ask Putin to be a “peacemaker”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will ask his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to be a “peacemaker” and stop Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

Erdogan, who has long sought to mediate peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and speak to Putin on Sunday or Monday.

“We must tell (Putin) that you must be the maker of the step that is taken for peace,” Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying. He added, “We have to find a way to solve this issue by telling him: Take an honorable first step.”

On the other hand, Erdogan said that Turkey cannot impose sanctions on Russia because of its energy needs and joint cooperation. “We buy almost half of the natural gas we consume from Russia,” Erdogan said. We are also building the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant with Russia. We can’t put that aside.”

He also denied reports that US officials informally raised with Turkey the unlikely possibility of sending S-400 systems to Ukraine, saying, “All they do is make a fuss,” referring to Washington.

Erdogan said that he also discussed the possibility of purchasing the SAMP-T missile defense system from the Franco-Italian Eurosam consortium with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi during the NATO summit on Thursday in Brussels.

(agencies)