“Our visit comes at a sensitive time. I want to reiterate here that we will continue to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea,” Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“As we have said before, Turkey is ready to do its part in resolving the crisis between two friendly countries, who are also our neighbors in the Black Sea,” the Turkish president added. Erdogan, who was received today by his Ukrainian counterpart, points to his membership of NATO and his good relations with Kiev to pursue his own mediation.
Today, before leaving for Kiev, he repeated his invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to Turkey.
