Turkey: Disagreements remain with Russia over the Crimea
Turkey is pursuing development of its relationship with Russia, but disagreement on several issues, including the Crimea, remain between the countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at the Munich conference.
He remarked that the relationship between the two countries had been good before Turkey fighter jets shot down a Russian bomber in November 2015.
“And none of us asked why we had such good relations. After the incident, many countries in NATO and the EU advised to normalize relationships with Russia, because they didn’t need any additional tensions. We normalized our relationship and then after that I began to be asked why did we normalize relations with Moscow,” he said.
At that time, the minister emphasized that his country maintains a principled policy.
“Before the incident we had problems connected with the Crimea, we didn’t accept the annexation of the Crimea. We have varying positions on the Assad regime, and so disagreements remain,” Çavuşoğlu remarked.
Earlier this month Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey would not accept the annexation of the Crimea “under any circumstances.”
Additionally, the Turkish president said that Turkey cannot abandon their compatriots in the Crimea.