Türkiye ready to provide all support for peace between Russia, Ukraine: Parliament speaker

The Turkish parliament speaker said that the proposed wishes for peace in Ukraine and Russia are “positive,” and Türkiye is ready to provide all kinds of support to ensure peace till the end.

Numan Kurtulmus met with Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council of Russia, during her official visit to Türkiye's Parliament, where they held bilateral and delegation meetings, followed by a joint press conference.

Kurtulmus expressed his pleasure in welcoming Matviyenko and noted that they had productive discussions on key issues affecting both countries, the region, and the world.

He also noted his September 2023 visit to Russia, where he met with President Putin, addressed the Federation Council General Assembly, and expressed gratitude to Matviyenko for hosting him.

He stated that the long-standing, close, and strategic cooperation between Türkiye and Russia has deep historical roots and emphasized that bilateral relations continue to grow and progress positively each day.

He stressed that the cooperation in sectors like economy, trade, education, culture, tourism, and energy has reached a significant level, saying: “With bilateral trade between Türkiye and Russia exceeding 54 billion dollars, though it is still not enough,” Kurtulmus expressed hope to increase the trade value.

- 'Our position has been very clear and unambiguous since the beginning of Russia-Ukraine war'

Stating that Ankara's position has been “very clear” since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, Kurtulmus said that the war, which claimed thousands of people's lives, is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, but between Russia and the West.

Drawing attention to Ankara's efforts to end the war, Kurtulmus added that in spite of the time that has passed, peace has not been reached because “some forces were in favor of the continuation of the war.”

“Now we believe that the will or wishes for peace are positive, and we are ready to support to ensure this peace until the end,” Kurtulmus said, expressing Ankara's readiness to be a facilitating factor in all kinds of negotiations.

He emphasized that Türkiye's stance on the Russia-Ukraine war has produced very important and valuable results and said with the “grain corridor,” the already existing food problems in the world were prevented from growing, and the food crisis was prevented.

He underlined Türkiye's role in facilitating prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russia and adhering to the Montreux Straits Convention during the war, preventing non-regional ships from entering the Black Sea.

- Reconstruction of Syria

Kurtulmus said that it is possible to summarize our expectations from the new Syrian administration in three main points: ensuring Syria's territorial integrity, establishing an inclusive system that represents all groups, and eliminating terrorist groups, particularly ISIS (Daesh) and PYD/YPG, while creating a unified national army.

He also expressed hope that Russia would contribute to the reconstruction of Syria, adding: “They expressed that they are already in constructive relations with the current Syrian government on this issue. We expect the international community to provide sincere support to Syria's institutional capacity building and urban reconstruction.”

- 'Israeli genocide against Palestinians unacceptable'

Kurtulmus stated that Israel's actions in the region, particularly its aggressive stance towards the Palestinian people over the past 1.5 years, which has escalated to the level of genocide, were also discussed during the meeting, adding: “These genocidal policies of Netanyahu and his government are unacceptable. This barbaric attitude towards the Palestinian people, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank, is never acceptable.”

He said that at this point there is no other way than a “two-state solution” in the region, adding: "It is gratifying for us to hear once again that the Russian Federation also strongly supports the two-state solution and stands by the just cause of the Palestinian people,” and expressed his pleasure to see that they have close views with Russia on Palestine.