The Turkish side wants peace in Ukraine and spares no effort to negotiate with both sides of the conflict, Ismail Safi, a member of Turkey's Presidential Council for Foreign and Defense Policy (also a member of the GSV "Russia-Islamic World " - editor's note), said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Wednesday.
"We, the Turkish side, want only peace in the region. We don't want a continuation and prolongation of the conflict, we have always opposed it. But the conflict is already underway, there is no point in blaming anyone here. The only country that is sincerely fighting to stop this conflict is Turkey. Everybody sees that. No one sees the West making a sincere effort right now to resolve the conflict. But Turkey is sincerely sparing no effort to negotiate with both Ukraine and Russia to end [the conflict]. The whole world can already see that," he told the newspaper.
Safi expressed hope that the Turkish government will achieve positive results at the negotiation stage, adding that "the Ukrainian people and the Russian people <...> they are all our neighbors, our brothers. So we grieve and wish it would stop. We are doing a lot for this - everything we can".
The newspaper correspondent also asked about the possible exclusion of Turkey from NATO because of its position on Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. "No, I don't think it would be easy to exclude Turkey from NATO. I mean, frankly, I don't think it will come to that. But, of course, if Turkey remains part of the alliance, the other member countries of the bloc also have to comply with some of its requirements and wishes. For example, as in the last case with Finland and Sweden: you cannot be a partner in one alliance and at the same time support groups that are hostile to another member country. So it is natural for Turkey to ask Stockholm and Helsinki to stop supporting these terrorist organizations. But I don't think it will come down to withdrawal from NATO, as you say. I think Finland and Sweden will agree to meet Turkey's demands," said Safi.
Safi also noted that Turkey is not under pressure from the US or other NATO countries to make concessions to ratify Finland's and Sweden's applications for membership in the alliance. "But we can say that Turkey itself will put a little more pressure on the US on the same issue. We warned the US a long time ago to stop supporting the YPG terrorist structures [which Turkey considers to be the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party - TASS] in Syria. We have warned them more than once or twice. In this case, when the topic of Sweden and Finland comes up again, we repeat our demand again: stop supporting the terrorists," he said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Based on materials from TASS