The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents met today in Samarkand, the historic Silk Road city of Uzbekistan hosting a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, amid renewed hostilities between Baku and Yerevan.
The meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, which lasted 40 minutes, precedes Erdogan’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the second day of the summit. Besides the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflagration, efforts to improve the Black Sea grain corridor are expected to be high on the agenda of the Putin-Erdogan meeting.
Putin expressed his woes over the grain deal last week, which Erdogan helped broker in July. Under the agreement, Ukraine was allowed to export 5 million tonnes of grain per month, alleviating fears of a global food crisis. To secure exports, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN officials have set up an operations center in Istanbul to help guide Ukrainian commercial ships through the Black Sea minefields. Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced today that more than 3 million tons have reached global markets in the past 46 days.
Putin, saying the grain was not reaching the developing world, threatened to pull out of the deal last week. Russian officials have also complained that parts of the deal that aimed to help Russia sell its fertilizers and other agricultural products despite sanctions weren’t having much effect.
Erdogan backed Putin’s claims, saying the Russian president was right that Ukrainian grain went to rich countries rather than developing countries. He also sided with Russian concerns over the export of fertilizer, which he said the world needed.
In an interview with Turkey’s official news agency, Anadolu, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was working with Turkey and other actors to resolve “access to food and Russian fertilizers to international markets”.
“We are doing everything and working with the United States, the EU and others to make sure that what has been said over and over again, that the sanctions do not apply to food and fertilizers, translates into reality, and we badly need Russian fertilizers at a time when we are witnessing a crisis in the fertilizer market,” said the UN Secretary General. “We are also negotiating the export of Russian ammonia through the Ukraine: One of the things that has been made clear is that this will create the conditions for having a longer term program, especially if the program is designed in a way that benefits both countries.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that when Russia complained about possible restrictions on its grain exports, he called US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Guterres. Cavusoglu said Russian grain supplies were not subject to sanctions. Yet other restrictions hamper Russia’s exports, including the inability of its ships to obtain insurance or even be received and serviced at certain ports, he said.
While Turkey and Russia mostly agree to work together on Russian fertilizer exports, the conversation about Armenia and Azerbaijan can be more difficult. No official statement was made after Erdogan-Aliyev’s meeting on Thursday, but Turkey, unlike Russia, gave unequivocal support to Azerbaijan, which it helped with drones in 2020 to retake part of the territory occupied by Armenia for 30 years.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke with his Azerbaijani counterpart Zakir Hasanov on Thursday to get the “latest information on the ground” following Yerevan’s announcement that a truce had been agreed on Wednesday evening. Akar also promised the “strongest possible supportto “Brother Azerbaijan”.
Erdogan is likely to pressure Putin to use his influence over Armenia to give in to Azerbaijani demands, Amberin Zaman reported on Wednesday. These include Armenia’s renunciation of its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has an Armenian majority.
Russia said on Thursday it was seeking to reverse any shifts in the region’s military balance that had occurred as a result of this week’s fighting. “We are in close contact with both countries in order to reach a lasting ceasefire and the return of Azerbaijani and Armenian military personnel to their original positions,” the Russian ambassador to the UN said on Thursday. Vassily Nebenzia to the Security Council.
Besides Putin, Erdogan will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the second day of the summit. Xi and Putin held a meeting on the first day of the summit, during which Putin praised the Chinese leader for what he called a “balanced” stance on the conflict.
Erdogan’s visit to Samarkand marks the first participation at the presidential level in the SCO since Turkey “achieved dialogue partner status” in the SCO in 2012, according to a statement from the presidency. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt are also dialogue partners in the organization, while Iran began its membership process last year.
The presidential statement added that Erdogan would continue directly to the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The presidency said Erdogan would meet with António Guterres and hold bilateral talks with various heads of state and government.
Asked if Erdogan would meet Biden on the sidelines of the meeting, a senior diplomatic official told reporters in Ankara that no meeting was scheduled at presidential or foreign minister level.
Erdogan, who insists on strict security measures on all his trips abroad, will not attend Elizabeth II’s funeral on September 19, despite earlier saying he wanted to go. Turkey will be represented by Cavusoglu.
