Erdogan on trip to mend ties with Russia after failed coup bid
ST PETERSBURG: Russian President Vladimir Putin told his visiting Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan he hoped Ankara could fully restore order after a failed military coup last month, saying yesterday that Moscow always opposed unconstitutional actions.
Erdogan’s trip to Russia comes as Turkey’s relations with Europe and the US are strained by what Ankara sees as Western concern about how it handled the abortive coup in which more than 240 people were killed.
Putin, one of the first to call the Turkish leader to offer his support in the putsch’s aftermath, has positioned himself as a reliable ally even though ties between Moscow and Ankara were thrown into crisis by Turkey shooting down a Russian military jet near the Syrian border late last year.
Welcoming Erdogan in a Tsarist-era palace just outside his home town, Putin signalled that he was ready to improve relations with Turkey, which he said had gone from a historical high point to a very low level.
“Your visit today, which you made despite the really complex domestic political situation in Turkey, shows we all want to restart our dialogue and restore our relations,” said Putin. He then offered Erdogan moral support over failed military coup.
“I want to again say that it’s our principled position that we are always categorically against any attempts at unconstitutional actions,” said Putin. “I hope that under your leadership the Turkish people will cope with this problem (the coup’s aftermath) and that order and constitutional legality will be restored.”
Putin said the two men would discuss how to restore trade and economic ties and cooperation against terrorism.
Russia imposed trade sanctions on Turkey in the wake of the shooting down of its jet.
Erdogan said Turkey was entering a “very different period” in its relations with Russia, and that solidarity between the two countries would help the resolution of regional problems.
His visit comes at a time when Turkey’s ties with Nato and the EU are under strain.
Anti-American sentiment among Turks is on the rise and can only be calmed by the US extraditing the Muslim cleric Ankara accuses of orchestrating last month’s failed coup, Turkey’s justice minister said.
Erdogan blames Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, and last month’s his followers for the July 15 coup.
Turkey has launched a series of mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters in its armed forces, other state institutions, universities, schools and the media since the abortive coup, prompting Western concerns for the stability of a key Nato ally.
Erdoga has criticised the US and the EU for showing what he says is a lack of solidarity with Turkey over the coup and of caring more for the rights of people he views as traitors.
“There is a serious anti-American feeling in Turkey, and this is turning into hatred,” said Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. “It is in the hands of the United States to stop this anti-American feeling leading to hatred.”
Responding to Turkey’s demand for Gulen’s extradition, President Barack Obama has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Last week a State Department spokesman said Washington was evaluating new documents it had received.
The 75-year-old Gulen, who built up a network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey and abroad over decades, denies any involvement in the coup and has condemned it. He has also accused Erdogan of using the coup to amass greater powers.
“Whether the US extradites Gulen or not this will be a political decision,” Bozdag said. “If he is not extradited, Turkey will have been sacrificed for a terrorist.”
A recent opinion poll showed two-thirds of Turks agree with their president that Gulen was behind the coup plot. Turkey has been holding almost daily mass rallies since July 15 in support of democracy and the government and against the plotters.
Authorities have suspended, detained or put under investigation tens of thousands of people in the armed forces, the judiciary, public service and elsewhere since the coup, in which a faction of the military commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks in an attempt to overthrow the government. – Reuters
Beijing slams Trump’s ‘anti-China’ bashing
BEIJING: Chinese state media attacked US Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump yesterday for playing the “China-bashing card” in his efforts to shore up his support, and accused him of offering no real ideas on how to improve relations.
In a speech in Detroit on Monday, Trump said China “breaks the rules in every way imaginable” when it comes to trade with the US.
This includes the illegal export of subsidised products, currency manipulation, “rampant” intellectual property theft and lax environmental controls, he said.
Official news agency Xinhua said that by scapegoating China for the US’s lacklustre economic performance, Trump had “betrayed” the Republicans’ traditional endorsement of free trade.
“The US middle and working classes, to whom Trump and Hillary have been eager to pander, would become the first to take the hit of US trade barriers against China,” Xinhua said. – dpa
Pilgrims run over
NEW DELHI: At least seven Hindu pilgrims were killed and seven others injured yesterday after a speeding truck crushed them in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pardesh.
The truck ran over the pilgrims sleeping on the footpath in the Hindu holy town of Ayodhya in Faizabad district. “Seven pilgrims, including four women, were killed and seven others injured after being hit by a vehicle,” an official in Ayodhya town said.
“The devotees had come from Kanpur to attend a religious gathering. The injured were taken to hospital, where two were referred to Lucknow trauma centre owing to their critical condition,” the official said.
Thousands of Hindu devotees have gathered in the town to take part in religious celebrations set to last a fortnight. – Xinhua
Five soldiers missing
BAMAKO: Five soldiers are missing after clashes with militants in central Mali at the weekend, military officials said yesterday, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
Fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region . Defence ministry spokesman Diarran Kone said five soldiers had disappeared, one other was injured, while vehicles were lost in the clashes.
In a statement posted online, Ansar Dine said it had ambushed the Mali army, killing and wounding soldiers and looting weapons and vehicles, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
The United Nations has deployed an 11 000-strong peacekeeping force in the war-ravaged African country. — Reuters
Masire Moz mission
GABORONE: Former Botswana President Sir Ketumile Masire has arrived in Maputo where he is expected to facilitate negotiations to end three years of a low-level war between the armed opposition Mozambique National Resistance Movement (Renamo) and the government of President Felipe Nyusi.
Masire was nominated by the London-based Global Leadership Foundation (GLF), which is chaired by former South African president F W de Klerk. The board includes Chester Crocker and Baroness Lynda Chalker, a former UK aid minister given honorary Mozambican citizenship by President Armando Guebuza.
The GLF was set up by De Klerk to help the world achieve peace through the negotiations. – ANA
Flights cancelled
BERLIN: Delta Air Lines cancelled nearly 250 flights yesterday as the company works to “reset” its operations after a computer outage grounded flights worldwide.
The Atlanta-based carrier, one of the world’s largest, said those US-morning cancellations came as it works to get aircraft and crews to where they are supposed to be.
The company indicated that more scheduled changes might be coming. “We were able to bring our systems back on line and resume flights within a few hours yesterday but we are still operating in recovery mode,” said Delta.
A power outage at a facility in Atlanta crippled the airline’s global computer systems, leading to the cancellation of about 1 000 flights and stranding passengers. – dpa