Erdogan, after meeting with Zelensky, announced plans for talks with Putin

Erdogan's statement

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he expects to hold talks with Vladimir Putin in the near future on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. The Turkish leader's words were reported by CNN Türk; according to Gazeta.Ru, the statement was made upon Erdogan's return from Seoul. «After the meeting with Mr. Zelensky, we also want to hold talks with Mr. Putin in order to consider the Russian side of the issue,» he said. Erdogan emphasized that Turkey is doing and will continue to do everything possible to pave the way to peace.

Context: Zelensky's visit and the request for mediation

The statement follows Vladimir Zelensky's visit to Istanbul on October 31, to which Erdogan had invited him; the Ukrainian conflict and shipping security in the Black Sea were discussed then. According to Life.ru, even before that Zelensky asked Erdogan to help arrange his meeting with Putin in Turkey: according to him, Kyiv has close ties with Ankara, and Turkey is capable of acting as a «practical and realistic mediator» without taking either side. Zelensky recalled that Russian and Ukrainian delegations had already met in Turkey and achieved certain results, but further talks, in his view, need to be raised to the level of political decision-makers.

What is known about the preparations

According to Life.ru, Turkish representatives, primarily the foreign minister, will handle preparations for contacts with the Russian side. Erdogan did not announce specific dates or the format of a possible conversation. In the same speech, as the Anadolu agency reports, he touched on other topics: a planned visit to Azerbaijan on November 8 for Victory Day, and, in particular, he said it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the impact of the US midterm election results on Turkish-American relations.