Erdogan to tell Putin to be ‘architect of peace’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be an “architect of peace” and stop the war in Ukraine, Turkish media reported Friday.

Erdogan, who has been trying to broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv, made the comments while returning from a emergency NATO summit in Brussels.

Erdogan said he would telephone Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky on Friday and speak to Putin at the weekend or early next week, in comments published by the private NTV broadcaster and other media outlets.

“We should tell (Putin) you should be the architect of the step to be taken for peace,” Erdogan said.

“We should look for a way to resolve this issue by telling him ‘make an honourable start'”, said the Turkish leader, who has held direct talks with Putin.

An ally of Kyiv and a NATO member, Turkey has been trying to broker peace while declining to join Western sanctions against Russia.

Erdogan also said he would review the NATO summit’s results with Putin and Zelensky.

NATO on Thursday announced new troop deployments to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria and a plan to bolster chemical and nuclear defences.

Erodgan also said Russia and Ukraine appeared to have reached an agreement on the four out of six negotiating points: Ukraine’s withdrawal from NATO, the use of Russian in Ukraine, disarmament and security guarantees.

“Of course Ukraine is a state. It’s out of the question (for Kyiv) to accept disarmament from A to Z but the Ukrainian side said some compromises might be made there,” said Erdogan.

But he made clear that Ukraine was not that flexible with the status of the breakaway pro-Russian Donbas region and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Turkey hosted the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the southern resort of Antalya this month.

Erdogan has repeatedly said his country is ready to be a venue for a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be an "architect of peace" and stop the war in Ukraine, Turkish media reported Friday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be an "architect of peace" and stop the war in Ukraine, Turkish media reported Friday.
US President Joe Biden will travel to a town near the Polish-Ukrainian border Friday, trying to signal Western resolve in the face of a Russian invasion that has increasingly turned to a grinding war of attrition.
Twenty-nine people have died from cholera in Cameroon in the space of a week, the health minister said on Friday.
A coalition of Northern Youths, Nigeria Movement Forum (NMF), has condemned the call for the sack of Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Leo Irabor, and Chief of Defence Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Samuel Adebayo.
In March the World Health Organisation (WHO) spotted that there is a global increase in depression and anxiety by 25 percent in the first year of the pandemic. Researchers have come up with a rather interesting theory about  depression and exercise that may sound off, but this study shows that individuals who suffer from depression…
The rapid rise of misery in Nigeria in the aftermath of petroleum scarcity and rising inflation have hastened the adoption of a new industrial strategy for Nigerian economic growth
Eleven European countries are still dreaming of earning their places at the Qatar 2022 World Cup later this year. They include Scotland, Wales, European champions Italy, Cristiano Ronaldo
With reports of lower diesel inventories reported in Europe, alongside claims that Russian oil refiners have started to cut back on refinery throughput due to sanctions,
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Thursday for the world to prevent Russia using its gold reserves, ahead of a NATO summit on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, Tokyo and Seoul said as they voiced outrage at Pyongyang's most powerful launch since 2017.
Ukraine on Wednesday said it had struck a Russian naval transport vessel docked in the Azov Sea near the besieged port city of Mariupol, a month into the Russian invasion.