War in Ukraine: Turkey condemns Russian attack but remains cautious
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is still trying to mediate the war in Ukraine, while condemning the Russian attack.
A position if not of neutrality, of great caution.
© afp.com/Ozan KOSE
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who denounced the Russian attack, spoke by telephone this Saturday February 26 with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
At the same time, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telephoned his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, calling on Moscow to end its offensive.
A member of NATO, Turkey tries to maintain a particularly cautious position.
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From our correspondent in Istanbul
,
Anne Andlauer
On the one hand, there are firm condemnations.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said it several times: Turkey considers the Russian offensive in Ukraine as “
unacceptable
”, as a “
clear violation of international law
”.
He even accused the West, the European Union and NATO in particular, of not having a “
serious position
” and “
determined action
”, of being content to “
give advice to Ukraine
”.
On the other hand, the Turkish head of state is showing himself to be very cautious, more cautious in many respects than the West he criticizes.
Turkey refuses to join the sanctions against Moscow.
She abstained in the vote at the Council of Europe which suspended Russia's representation rights.
And despite repeated requests from Ukraine, it remains very reluctant to prohibit the passage of Russian warships to the Black Sea through its straits – the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
In fact, since Russia attacked Ukraine, Turkey has been trying to solve an impossible equation: to show Ukrainians unambiguous support... But without doing anything that would damage its relations with Russia too much.
Ankara thus continues to
call for “dialogue”
between Kiev and Moscow, and to offer its mediation.
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