Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statements on Crimea do not ruin the prospects for the success of his upcoming visit to Russia. This was stated by Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president, on the air of the Russia-1 TV channel, answering the questions of journalist Vladimir Solovyov in an interview with the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin."
"I would not exalt the situation so excessively," Peskov said. - "Turkey is our partner with whom we have very developed relations and with whom we still have disagreements. We know Turkey's position and the position of Mr. Erdogan on Crimea, and they have not concealed it".
According to the Kremlin spokesman, such statements "slightly, so to speak, left an unpleasant mark." "But, nevertheless, this in no way ruins the prospects of a successful, meaningful, and constructive working visit of president Erdogan to Russia," Peskov concluded.
At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman noted that "Erdogan considers Crimea to be occupied. However, he clarified that having worked for many years in Turkey, he knows a lot of Turks "who are fierce nationalists, who consider Crimea as Turkish, who consider it a Turkish fiefdom" since the times of the Ottoman Empire.
"But thank God these nationalists are not in power. And thank God the Turkish president does not share their views," the Kremlin spokesman added.
Talks with Putin
Peskov said that terrorist activity in Idlib poses a great danger, this problem will be the topic of Putin and Erdogan's talks.
"Unfortunately, terrorist activity continues from those territories. It is unacceptable, it is dangerous. It is dangerous. It interferes with the settlement process in Syria. All this will surely be on the agenda [of Putin and Erdogan's talks]," Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman urged not to forget that "when the situation on Idlib was altogether hot, the two presidents showed political will and found the negotiating potential to sit down, sit for many hours and come to an agreement." "Agreements were reached," Peskov stressed.
At the same time, according to his assessment, Putin and Erdogan "have a really very trusting, working, very good and predisposing to serious negotiations."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS