Building relations between Russia and Turkey is a very difficult but effective job. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed this opinion in an interview published on Wednesday to Kazakhstan's Tengrinews news agency.
"If we talk about relations with Turkey, we have a very difficult, very complex, but very productive work. Joint work. It is difficult because the fact that Turkey is a NATO member interferes. Of course, it is a hindrance, but it is, I would say, a unique experience, when one country is in NATO and another one is not," he said.
According to him, Russia and Turkey manage to find compromises even where it seems impossible. "For example, the Idlib de-escalation zone. In general, the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria, in our opinion, is a new page and a new mechanism for resolving this kind of conflict. To create de-escalation zones in order for people to start talking to each other, so that a kind of division really takes place. Some people are ready to live like this and others are not ready to live like this".
Shoigu also recalled that Russia together with Turkey is conducting patrols in northeastern Syria. "And we are working together to fight terrorists. We are working together, quite often in joint airspace. And we regulate and control many crossing points, we deal with refugees together," the minister noted.
In addition, he recalled the Russian-Turkish interaction to resolve the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. "This is such a very difficult operation. That's what I would like to call it and nothing else. Because a huge number of arguments, elements, motives were involved in it," the head of the Ministry said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS