Roundup: Turkey, Ukraine keen on boosting closer ties

Energy, trade and security were among top issues during Turkish president's visit to Kiev Friday with both sides reiterating commitment to boost economic ties and respect territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"We desire to find solutions to existing problems via diplomatic ways on the basis of international laws and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a press briefing with his counterpart.

Turkey has been supporting to political unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Russian-annexed Crimea in all international platforms, Erdogan noted.

Russia signed a treaty in 2014 to integrate Crimea and its city of Sevastopol into Russia after a local referendum, which was not recognized by Ukraine and major Western countries.

The Turkish leader said he hoped the agreement signed in February in the Belarusian capital of Minsk would be fully implemented.

Turkey, a neighbor of both Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea region, plays a balancing role in relations with both countries.

The status of ethnic Turkic Crimean Tatars who has a large diaspora in Turkey is a major concern for Ankara.

"Ankara has opted for an engagement with Russia with the hope that Russia will keep its promise to Turkey to improve the cultural and political rights of the Crimean Tatar community," Mesut Cevikalp, a Turkish analyst told Xinhua.

"However, it appears these promises have not been fulfilled," he added.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised to grant more rights to Crimean Tatars such as recognition of Tatar language as official language, having Tatars in the Crimean government, but lamented that Russia failed to deliver on these pledges yet.

In Kiev, Erdogan said Turkey will continue to monitor the difficult conditions Crimean Tatars find themselves in and raise their issue in bilateral and international fora.

The leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev who was banned from entering Crimea told Al Jazeera Turk on Friday that their political and cultural rights are in worse condition than they were during the era of Soviet Union.

"What happens to Ukraine and Crimea is of utmost importance to Turkey," Suat Kiniklioglu, another Turkish expert said.

Turkey is consumed by internal polarization, fatigued by overextension in Syria and the Middle East in general and does not have much energy left for Ukraine, he lamented.

BOTH SIDES EYE MORE TRADE

During his visit to Ukraine, Erdogan also co-chaired an intergovernmental conference called High Level Strategic Council meeting to discuss trade and business ties.

The trade volume between the two countries was recorded as 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, a drop of 11 percent with compare to the figure in 2013. In January, the trade volume reduced by 30 percent with compare to the same month in 2014.

And the two countries have agreed to boost trade volume to 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2017 and to 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2023, according to the Turkish president.

He said they also decided to conclude the free trade agreement talks as soon as possible to support the trade ties.

The two countries have been exploring the joint production of airplanes by Ukrainian company Antonov and Turkish Aerospace Industries TAI while cooperating in other sectors, such as space technologies.

The Turkish construction and contracting industry has undertaken some 4.5 billion U.S. dollars worth projects in Ukraine so far.

In the meantime, Turkey offered Ukraine 50 million U.S. dollars loan during Erdogan's visit on top of an additional 10 million U.S. dollars for humanitarian assistance.

ENERGY WOES

The fact that Turkey has been developing more energy cooperation with Russia complicates Ankara's ties with Ukraine, forcing Turkish leaders to become less willing to criticize Moscow openly.

In January, Russia said it plans to lay down a new gas pipeline through Turkey to export more natural gas to the Europe as it shelved the one that passes through Bulgaria.

Turkey, already heavily dependent on Russian gas, agreed in principle to support the new pipeline that is called as Turkish Stream.

Nevertheless, Turkey's independent dealing with Russia on energy has irked both Ukraine and Western powers that wants more pressure on Russia to change its behavior especially in Eastern Ukraine.

Concerned over heavy traffic passing through Istanbul, Turkey is also opposed to Ukraine's long-running project of building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on the Black Sea coast, which will surely generate more tanker traffic. Endit