Erdogan Says He Has No Intention of Severing Ties with Putin over Ukraine

"We have pursued a balanced policy in relations with both Russia and Ukraine," Erdogan stated at a meeting with Turkish youth in Ankara, RIA Novosti reported.

"I have no intention of severing ties either with Mr. Putin or with [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky," he added.

The Turkish president also noted he had sent his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin for talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

"We will continue doing all that in the period to come, because unleashing World War III would do no good either to our region, or to the world," he continued.

"Today, we are making a step in nuclear energy jointly with Russia. Hopefully, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant will be built and commissioned within the next year. This would be a very useful resource for us," he concluded.

Erdogan stressed that Ankara remains opposed to the idea of Finland’s and Sweden’s admission to NATO.

"We have told our friends that we will say ‘NO’ to Finland’s and Sweden’s admission to NATO. We will remain committed to this. We will not tolerate terrorist organizations in NATO. These countries are home to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the People’s Defense Units," Erdogan stated.

Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to NATO, Klaus Korhonen and Axel Vernhoff, on Wednesday handed their countries’ applications for NATO membership to the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Speaking at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow on May 16, Putin said that Moscow would retaliate against the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructures in Finland and Sweden. At the same time the Russian leader remarked that NATO’s admission of Finland and Sweden did not pose an immediate threat to Russia, because Moscow had no problems in relations with these countries.

Erdogan noted on May 18 that Ankara would refuse to support the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO until they made a decision on their attitude to terrorist organizations, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey regards as terrorist. He made a similar statement on May 16, adding that he was against admitting Finland and Sweden to NATO due to these countries’ refusal to extradite accomplices in KWP’s activity to Turkey. Also, Erdogan advised the Scandinavian countries not bother to send delegations in an attempt to convince Turkey of their bids. The Turkish leader repeated this statement on Wednesday.