Turkey’s Erdogan sends letter to Putin to restore ties

The Turkish president has sent a letter to Vladimir Putin congratulating him on Russia’s National Day.

Turkey downed a Russian jet along its border on November 24, 2015, over alleged airspace violations, prompting a series of sanctions from the Russian side, as well as a war of words.

There are strong expectations about an improvement in Turkish relations with Russian Federation, and Turkey’s economy and tourism should benefit positively, an aide to President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

The full contents of the letter were not made public.

Erdogan wanted to meet with Putin for face-to-face talks on the sidelines of a climate summit in Paris after the plane crisis, which was rebuffed by the Russian leader.

Separately, Prime Ministry sources said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also sent a congratulatory message to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Russia Day.

He also says there’s an opportunity for Canada to play a larger role in helping find a solution to the two-year-old Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and Moscow’s ongoing backing of separatist rebels in his country’s east. “Russian Federation has already revealed attitudes of this kind”, Kurtulmus added. “It is saddening to see such strong ties reach the current state”, he said in comments published in the Hurriyet newspaper Saturday.

According to reports, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Turkey Andrey Karlov will attend the iftar dinner for foreign ambassadors and Foreign Economic Relations Board members at the Presidential Palace.

“Using Russian folklore, legends and history, we are actively working to make this a theme park that will reflect the culture and lore of Russia – and one that will be built to a quality level equal to, or better than, any other world-class theme park today”, Goddard Group’s chairman Gary Goddard said in a statement, quoted by San Bernardo Valley Business Journal.