(EDM) The working dinner in Ankara, last Thursday (September 27), between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not a productive affair or a cordial meeting of minds. Erdoğan announced it immediately after speaking with United States President Donald Trump in New York, so there were expectations of a new step forward in Turkey and Russia harmonizing the de-escalation and de-conflicting processes in Syria. But the two leaders, accompanied by their respective ministers of foreign affairs and chiefs of general staffs, failed to deliver: Putin announced that necessary conditions were in place for “ending the fratricidal war in Syria,” while Erdoğan merely mentioned “efforts to make the Idlib de-escalation zone operational.” The Turkish president denounced the September 25 referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan as “illegal” and a “big mistake,” whereas his Russian counterpart avoided this issue altogether (Kremlin.ru, September 28). Apparently, the “detailed and frank exchange of views” (in Putin’s words) reduced rather than expanded the common ground between the two men (RBC, September 28). […]
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