Putin invites Turkish President Erdogan to visit annexed Crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his counterpart Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit the annexed Crimea to take part in the opening of the Cathedral Mosque in Simferopol. The head of the Kremlin also proposed inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the opening of a synagogue in annexed Sevastopol, Russian state agencies reported.
Not a single foreign leader has visited the Crimea during the five years of the annexation of the peninsula by Russia. The Turkish authorities, including Erdogan, have repeatedly expressed their support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
At the end of last year, Israel gradually abandoned its neutral position regarding the Crimea as the relations with Russia worsened . Israel voted in favor of a resolution at the UN General Assembly condemning the “occupation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia”.
The Russian authorities of the Crimea had postponed the opening of the Cathedral Mosque in Simferopol several times. In January 2019, the opening was postponed from May to the end of summer.