Turkey is continuing to urge Russia to halt its military operation in Ukraine and has called for talks and a cease-fire as the ongoing violence in the country will only lead to further civilian casualties and displacement.
The ongoing conflict has the potential to affect the stability and security of the whole region and Turkish officials have made numerous calls to stop the aggression. Ankara has repeatedly deemed the Russian invasion of Ukraine "unacceptable" and offered to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv.
“On the fourth day of the Ukraine war, we repeat President Erdoğan’s call for an immediate halt of Russian attacks and the start of cease-fire negotiations,” Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said on Sunday.
“We will continue our efforts to help the people of Ukraine and end bloodshed in this unjust and unlawful war,” he underlined on Twitter.
Communications Director Fahrettin Altun similarly said that Turkey believes in the constructive and creative power of diplomacy, underlining that the country tries to exhaust all diplomatic options in every crisis.
“This latest conflict is both unfortunate and unnecessary. We will try to prevent this war’s immediate and long-term consequences,” he said on Twitter.
In light of the speculation and commentary about Turkey’s policy in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Altun said: “Everyone should be assured that Turkey’s diplomatic actions and coordination with allies will always focus on how to achieve a quick and peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday. In the call, Erdoğan offered his condolences over the loss of lives in the Russian attack and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.
Erdoğan said Turkey was pushing for the declaration of an immediate cease-fire "to prevent further loss of life and prevent further damage to Ukraine," according to the Turkish Presidency, but did not mention the Black Sea. Kyiv has asked Ankara to block any Russian warships from reaching the Black Sea, from where Moscow launched one of its incursions on Ukraine's southern coast.
Zelenskyy, for his part, thanked Erdoğan for Turkey's humanitarian and military support, adding that a "ban on the passage of (Russian) warships to the Black Sea" was very important for his country. Turkey, which controls the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits that link the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, has not publicly announced a ban on Russian warships despite Ukraine's urgent requests that it do so, with Turkish officials anonymously speaking to the media denying the closure.
Russia has received no official notification from Turkey on the closure of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to Russian warships, the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian Embassy in Turkey as saying.
Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey has control over the Bosporus and Daradanelles connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. While trade ships may pass the strait freely in peacetime, battleships face certain restrictions.
Kyiv's ambassador to Ankara, Vasyl Bodnar, on Thursday officially requested that Turkey close the straits to Russian ships.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Friday said that under the 1936 convention, Ankara could not bar warships from returning to their home bases in the Black Sea, where Russia has a major naval base. On the same day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Bosporus was not among the topics discussed at a leaders' summit.
As the intense diplomatic traffic striving for a peaceful solution continued, Çavuşoğlu asked his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to call off the attack on Ukraine during a phone call on Saturday. Çavuşoğlu told Lavrov that further military escalation would not benefit anyone and reiterated Turkey's "readiness to host negotiations that could take place between the Russian Federation and Ukraine." A day earlier, Çavuşoğlu had also called Russia’s call for a coup unacceptable after Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian military to remove the country's leadership. On the Russian side, Moscow is ready to work closely with all constructive forces for the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis in the interests of peace and stability, the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar also discussed the Russian invasion with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov over the phone Saturday.
A statement published by the ministry said the defense chiefs discussed the latest situation in Ukraine, with Akar stressing that Turkey is ready to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid and continue to do its part to ensure peace in the region, as it has done before.
Turkey has found itself in a balancing act between Russia and Ukraine given the friendly ties and Black Sea maritime boundaries it shares with both parties. NATO member Turkey also has good economic and political relations with both countries and Erdoğan earlier last week said Ankara did not want to alienate either state.
Turkey has offered to mediate the crisis and had earlier warned Russia not to invade Ukraine. Ankara has been closely following the developments and is in close contact with both Kyiv and Moscow. While forging cooperation on defense and energy, Turkey has opposed Moscow’s policies in Syria and Libya, as well as its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It has also sold sophisticated drones to Ukraine, angering Russia. Turkey also strongly opposed Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
While Turkey’s call for mediation and its offer to host a Minsk group meeting in Istanbul was welcomed by Ukraine, Russia held back from officially accepting the offer.
"We have repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution, but the war is a reality right now. The international community’s lack of unity over a number of regional and global issues has been a major problem just like it has over the Russia-Ukraine crisis," Altun said.
"As Turkey, we have done everything we can to prevent this at the diplomatic level," the communications chief said, adding that the country's calls to reform the U.N. system have failed to be heard and "we have seen the dire consequences in this latest crisis."
"This war could have been prevented if our calls were heeded,” he added. "We are witnessing yet another war in our region."
