Turkish Ambassador: Dialog with Kremlin not to change Ankara’s position regarding Ukraine

“Over the recent year, after the shooting down of a Russian aircraft [Su-24 in November 2015], our relations with Russia have been minimized, although we didn’t tend to this. We have become the only country in the world that doesn’t have any dialogue with Russia because Russia didn’t want to conduct such a dialogue,” Tezel said in an interview with the Yevropeyska Pravda online publication.

The ambassador stressed that Turkey still supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

“It also means that Crimea is a part of Ukraine. And the Russians know that we do not change this position. This is a matter of principle," said Tezel.

A reminder that, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in August in one of the Russian cities. This will be their first meeting since the incident with the aircraft.

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