With the war in Ukraine, Europe is now facing "a great fire," the Turkish parliament speaker said Tuesday.
"What are we doing here, in Slovenia, at the conference of speakers of EU parliaments, while there's a great fire and great crisis in Ukraine, while a great humanitarian tragedy is being experienced, and a great fire, a great migration wave has come to Europe's door?" Mustafa Şentop asked at the meeting in the capital, Ljubljana.
During the talks between Russia and Ukraine held in Istanbul on Tuesday, Şentop criticized European Union member countries for failing to prevent the war, adding that the bloc had fallen short in its strategic thinking, prioritization, and predictions.
"We are faced with a European Union that ... is held hostage to the simple whims of a few small countries, instead of robust and comprehensive perspectives on the future, and has failed to include nations that have vast geostrategic significance and weight, like Turkey and Ukraine."
He slammed the declaration that the conference is planning to release as an "unfair, cruel" jab at Turkey.
Şentop underlined that the latest talks in Istanbul indicated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's intense diplomatic efforts are paying off.
"Turkey is fulfilling its mission of mediation as a country that both Ukraine and Russia trust to be honest and fair," he said, underlining that Ankara is "working hard to stop this great fire."
Şentop described the declaration as an attempt to slander Turkey with an unjust, ruthless, allegedly bossy approach.
Having arrived in the Slovenian capital on Sunday night, Şentop is set to meet with the country's National Council President Alojz Kovsca.
On Monday, Şentop held talks with top Slovenian officials, including President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and Igor Zorcic, the speaker of Slovenia’s National Assembly.
The Ukraine crisis and Ankara's push for peace were on the agenda.
Turkey has won widespread praise for its efforts to end the war, helped by its unique position in having friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine.
On March 10, it hosted the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the southern resort city of Antalya, the highest-level meeting of the two sides since the war began.
Ahead of the talks in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met the Russian and Ukrainian delegations and reiterated his call for a cease-fire. "We believe that a just peace will have no losers, and a prolonged conflict is not in anyone's interest," he said.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Tuesday's meeting achieved "the most meaningful progress since the start of negotiations."
Speaking at a press conference after the latest round of talks wrapped up, Çavuşoğlu said he was pleased to see increasing "rapprochement" between the two sides.
On the peace talks organized in the Turkish metropolis, he said: "It is an indication of the trust of the parties in Turkey."
He added that "the top priority is to achieve a cease-fire as soon as possible and pave the way for a permanent political solution."
Earlier rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks, held in person in Belarus or by video, had failed to make any significant progress on ending the war that has killed at least 1,179 people in Ukraine, and driven almost four million to neighboring countries, according to U.N. estimates.
