Turkey’s efforts to stop Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ankara is making efforts for an immediate ceasefire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered his condolences to President Volodymyr Zelensky over the deaths of the Russian attack on Ukraine and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called on his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Saturday to end the military operation in Ukraine, a Turkish diplomat said.
Çavuşoğlu told Lavrov that a further escalation of military tension would not benefit anyone, the unidentified Turkish diplomat said.

Turkey has offered to act as a mediator to try to avoid a conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

Çavuşoğlu reiterated “Turkey’s readiness to host possible negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine”, the diplomat said.

Turkey is trying to balance its positions between Russia and Ukraine, each of which has friendly relations.

Turkey is an ally of Ukraine, and has sold it mainly drones, but it is also heavily dependent on Russia, from which it has bought an air defense system as well as gas and grain.

The Council of Europe on Friday decided to suspend immediately the participation of Russian diplomats in the most prominent bodies of this European organization in response to the armed attack on Ukraine.

However, Turkey on Friday abstained from voting on suspending Russia’s membership in most Council of Europe bodies in response to its invasion of Ukraine, in order not to cut off dialog with it, Çavuşoğlu said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Turkey’s humanitarian and military support for his country, saying a ban on the passage of Russian warships into the Black Sea was “very important for Ukraine”.

Turkey, which controls the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus straits linking the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, has not announced any ban on the use of Russian warships in the Straits, despite an urgent request from Ukraine to do so.

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that under the 1936 treaty governing this, Ankara could not prevent warships returning to their bases in Turkey from passing through the Straits. Russia has a major naval base in the Black Sea.

Czech television quoted Transport Minister Martin Kupka as saying that the Czech Republic will close its airspace to Russian airlines starting tomorrow, Sunday.
The move expands a ban on Russian Airlines operating at Czech airports which was imposed Friday.