MOSCOW - Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday that Turkish-Russian relations were more different than they were ten years ago.
Gul replied to questions of A.A correspondent in Moscow where he came to attend the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Middle East Quartet.
Gul said, ''Russia is an important country. Today's world is different from the world of ten years ago. Turkish-Russian relations today are more different than they were ten years ago. Both countries have a very sincere respect to each other. In such a milieu, we should certainly share, consult and discuss with Russia many issues which are concerning not only Turkey, but also other countries. In fact, it is our duty to explain the issues concerning the United Nations to a country which is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.''
When asked whether an arrangement was made in relations with Russia, Gul said that the confidence and respect, which was shown to Turkey by Russia, has become very different when the belief has emerged that Turkey was a country which could take independent decisions, function its democratic process and take decisions with its democratic structure. He added that such a country should not be considered as a spokesman of Greeks or others. ''It could be like that in the past, but it is not like that now. And it must not be. Of course, it will consider things and weigh itself,'' he said. He added that Turkey's duty was to explain everything with sincerity.
Noting that Turkey currently had multi-dimensional and wide relations with Russia, Gul said that while such relations were existing between two countries, Turkey should explain its own case in the best way and ask for the contribution of Russia. He added that while they had such big economic and political interests and while two countries were such close to each other and 1,5 million Russian tourists were visiting Turkey, why Turkey should not exert extraordinary efforts in relations with Russia.
(GC-AÖ) 21.05.2004