Russia is the Main Promoter of the Turkish-Ukrainian Cooperation

• 03.10.2016, 18:53
•  Europe,  Region,  World

Official website of the President of Ukraine

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is paying a two-day official visit to Turkey. He has already met the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. During the meeting they agreed to expand cooperation between the two countries in the field of cargo transportation, highlighting the "use of transit potential of Ukraine and Turkey," RIA Novosti reports. Poroshenko and Davutoglu also discussed the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Ukraine.

Later Poroshenko met with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During the fifth session of the High Level Strategic Council between Ukraine and Turkey the two sides discussed the whole range of bilateral issues and decided to enhance strategic partnership between Ukraine and Turkey in the sphere of security and defense, official website of the President of Ukraine reports.

"Special attention has been paid to the issues of security, defense, modern national security challenges of Ukraine and Turkey, as well as challenges in the international security arising, inter alia, from the aggressive policy of Russia," Poroshenko said.

The President of Ukraine insists that economy was the main component of the negotiations, but the political side of the Turkish-Ukrainian talks is much more interesting amid the growing differences between Russia and Turkey.

Turkey’s President said "Turkey will always support territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and had never recognized the illegal annexation of Crimea". Erdogan said his country would fulfill its promise to allocate USD 10 million for humanitarian needs of Ukraine and urged the international community to increase support for Ukraine.

In his turn, Poroshenko said "Ukraine and Turkey would cooperate in the framework of international organizations to de-occupy Crimea and return the Ukrainian sovereignty to the peninsula". Poroshenko also spoke about "the human rights violation and oppression of Crimean Tatars". "Russian occupants conduct massive human rights violations, force people to get Russian citizenship," Ukrainian President said.

According to Vesti, Poroshenko also called on the Turkish Parliament to recognize deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 as genocide.

It should be noted that "strategic cooperation" between Turkey and Ukraine intensified after the incident of shooting down the Russian jet by the Turkish forces. As a result relations between Russia and Turkey have been severely strained.

Before that official Ankara was making efforts in order not to damage Russian-Ukrainian relations amid the Ukrainian crisis, despite the fact that it was announcing about its support to territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and readiness to protect the Crimean Tatars.

At this stage Turkey does not aim to keep this balance, on the contrary, Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars have become one of those leverages that Ankara uses against Moscow.