Turkey supports 'Crimean Platform' – foreign minister
Turkey supports the Crimean Platform initiative, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said during a working visit to Kyiv.
"We considered how we can all help the Crimean Tatars together and expressed our support for the Crimean Platform initiative," Çavuşoğlu said in a statement, following the first Quadriga talks in Kyiv on Friday.
He said that Turkey does not recognize the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, and declares this on all international platforms without exception, including the UN.
"We want the Donbas issue to be resolved within the territorial integrity of Ukraine and international law, we support the ceasefire, although there are minor violations in this regard," the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The minister said that Turkey will continue to support the OSCE temporary monitoring mission, which operates in the difficult conditions of Donbas, and which is headed by Turkish diplomat, Ambassador Halit Çevik.
"This is the first meeting of such a plan, but not the last. Such a meeting will continue at the level of our deputies, experts. And I believe that this format will provide new energy to the development of our relations," Çavuşoğlu said.
He also said that despite the pandemic, relations between Ukraine and Turkey are dynamically developing, and during this time, two visits were made at the presidential level. Recently, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal paid a visit to Turkey. The foreign minister also said that in 2020, about a million Ukrainians visited Turkey. "As an Antalya, I am proud to announce that this year we received about a million Ukrainian guests in Turkey, we are very happy about this," Çavuşoğlu said.
The Quadriga format, founded by Ukraine and Turkey, provides for bilateral political and defense consultations between the foreign and defense ministers of Ukraine and Turkey.