PUTIN AND ERDOGAN HOLD TALKS ON SYRIA

Both Moscow and Ankara are pushing for the creation of four de-escalation zones in Syria to end the six-year civil war

Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Syria and a key weapons deal, hoping to strengthen an increasingly busy relationship that troubles the West.

Despite a rivalry that goes back to the Ottoman Empire and the Romanov dynasty, Russia and Turkey have been working closely since a 2016 reconciliation ended a crisis caused by the shooting down of a Russian warplane over Syria.

“Russia and Turkey are co-operating very tightly,” Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the one-day working visit by Mr Putin to Ankara.

Mr Erdogan welcomed Mr Putin at the doors of his vast presidential palace in Ankara for the evening talks, shortly after the Russian president landed at the city’s airport.

The two held a working dinner before a one-on-one meeting, the Turkish presidency said.

Turkey and Russia have been on opposing sides during the more than six years of war in Syria, with Russia the key backer of president Bashar Al Assad and Turkey supporting rebels seeking his removal.

But while Turkey’s policy is officially unchanged, Ankara has notably cooled its attacks on the Damascus government since its cooperation with Russia began to heat up.

Both Moscow and Ankara are pushing for the creation of four de-escalation zones in Syria, in line with peace talks in Astana, to end the civil war that has raged since 2011.

With Moscow’s ally Mr Assad now having the upper hand in the conflict, Russia will be hoping Turkey will bring rebels it has supported into the political process.

Turkey, a Nato member, has signed a deal reportedly worth $2 billion (Dh7.34bn) to buy S-400 air defence systems from Russia, a move that has shocked its allies in the alliance.

Economic cooperation is beginning to flourish, with Russian tourists returning to Turkey and the two countries working on a Black Sea gas pipeline.

Yet analysts said that while both countries share an interest in seeking to discomfort the West by showing off close cooperation, their relationship falls well short of a sincere alliance.

“Relations between Turkey and Russia may appear to be friendly, but they are loaded with contradictions and set to remain unstable in the near term,” Pavel Baev and Kemal Kirisci of the Brookings Institution wrote in a study this month.

Russia’s stance on the non-binding Kurdish independence vote is also troubling for Turkey, for whom opposing Kurdish statehood is a cornerstone of foreign policy because of its own Kurdish minority.

The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that while Moscow supports the territorial integrity of Iraq, it “views the Kurds’ national aspirations with respect”.

“Russia has been trying to abstain from taking a clear stance on the issue and Turkey may be wanting to get some assurances and explanations,” Timur Akhmetov, Turkey expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, said.

In public, Mr Erdogan has shied from attacking Russia’s stance on the Kurdish referendum, declaring that Israel was the only state that backed the poll.

Deliveries of the S-400s, meanwhile, could be years away because of demand from China, while Ankara’s insistence on a technology transfer as part of the deal may also create problems.

But both Moscow and Ankara are, for now, happy to send a message to the West that they are serious about defence co-operation.

“They are trying to use the issue of the S-400 for their respective political interests,” Mr Akhmetov said.