Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for the first time after Erdogan's apology. The ministerial talks are being held in Sochi on the sidelines of the BSEC summit. According to Lavrov, the process of normalizing relations between the two countries will be the main theme of the meeting.
"We appreciate the opportunity for discussing relations after the Turkish president’s message to the Russian president and their telephone conversation. We do hope this contact will set the right tone for the normalization of relations," Sergey Lavrov said.
"Thank you very much for the invitation and for your hospitality. Our presidents spoke over the phone, that was a very constructive conversation. Now we need to normalize relations so that they can reach the proper level," Cavusoglu noted.
Mevlüt Cavusoglu noted that Turkey is fighting against international terrorism, like Russia does. "Daesh attacks Turkey, because Turkey is fighting Daesh directly, including by helping the coalition and hindering foreign terrorists. We are truly killing the ideology of this terrorist organization," he said.
Sergei Lavrov, in turn, stressed that Russia and Turkey have no differences on who are considered terrorists in Syria, therefore, the ministers have resumed the activities of the working group on the fight against terrorism.
"Together with the Turkish side, we have set up a bilateral working group on combating terrorism. It comprises representatives of the Foreign Ministry and intelligence services. Over the past seven months, its work has been frozen for obvious reasons, but today we agreed to resume it at an early date," he said.
In addition, Sergei Lavrov expressed confidence that the working relationship will be developed through other channels, including between the military in the two counties taking into account actions of our Aerospace Forces in accordance with the invitation of the Syrian government, taking into account the fact that Turkey is a member of the US-led coalition.
Advisor to the deputy chairman of the Federation Council, deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Andrey Baklanov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, described the ministerial meeting in Sochi as very useful in this situation, recalling that "both interlocutor know each other very well".
"During the period when Cavusoglu was the PACE chairman in 2010 -2012 he put too much stock into cooperation with the Russian side, his position was very balanced, and he tried to make sure that we did not have exacerbations in PACE issues," he noted.
"In the latter cases, he has monitored the issues related to the development of relations with Russia very closely and came not only for talks with Lavrov. For example, he often took part in the Kazan summit," the expert noted.
"That is, he has a very precise knowledge of the Russian Federation, of our approaches and points of view. Therefore, considering such a background, Lavrov and Cavusoglu can carry out very useful work in a short time to determine how we can overcome the crisis," Andrey Baklanov said.
"Of course, it requires the actual position of the Turkish side to be followed by specific cases, including in the anti-terrorist sphere," he explained.
"Now, I think the main issue is the unlocking of our relationship. Аnd after it the need will arise to restore our political relations, including between the heads of foreign ministries," the advisor to the deputy chairman of the Federation Council stressed.
"So, if the normalization process is successful, additional opportunities to develop relations on a long-term basis will be opened," Andrey Baklanov believes.
Answering how fast the restoration of relations will be, he noted that "it does not depend on us, it depends on the Turkish side."
"Now everything depends on how the Turkish side's real actions will reinforce their initial consent to change the position, which we consider unacceptable," the deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association explained.
