Erdogan flies to Lukashenko
The Turkish Embassy is working on organizing a visit to Minsk by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which is scheduled for July 29. The BelaPAN agency reports this with reference to the Turkish diplomatic mission in Belarus.
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“A visit is planned. We did not have any instructions regarding its cancellation. The embassy, for its part, is working on organizing the visit,” said an employee of the Turkish embassy. It is expected that Erdogan will take part in the Belarusian-Turkish business forum, as well as in the opening ceremony of the Cathedral Mosque in Minsk.
Erdogan received an invitation to visit Belarus from Alexander Lukashenko in April this year during a meeting in Istanbul as part of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The President of Turkey announced his readiness to come to Belarus.
Then Russian experts named two possible reasons for the rapprochement between Minsk and Ankara against the backdrop of cooling relations with Moscow.
Firstly, as in the case of European sanctions, Belarus could become a corridor for Turkey to import its goods to Russia. In addition, Natalya Milchakova, deputy director of the analytical department at Alpari, suggested that Erdogan wants to use Belarus as a “bridge” between Europe and Asia.
“Previously, Erdogan clearly saw Turkey itself as such a “bridge.” But, since the Syrian conflict has completely disrupted the balance of power in the region, and with the return of Crimea to Russia, Russia has become the largest Black Sea power, Erdogan’s plans are not yet destined to be realized. So he is trying to build his “bridge” to Europe in a roundabout way, through cooperation with the European state of Belarus,” Milchakova said.
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