ISTANBUL - Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan departed for Russia on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport prior to his departure for Sochi, Erdogan said that he would pay a working visit to Russia together with Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yilmaz.
Erdogan said that he would meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Sochi, adding that economic issues and matters related to energy would be high on agenda of his talks in Russia.
Commenting on his recent visit to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said Turkey and Azerbaijan had the same opinion regarding the establishment of peace in South Caucasus region.
"Turkey will never leave its brother Azerbaijan alone," he said.
Regarding his talks in Poland, Erdogan said that he was the first Turkish prime minister to visit this country since 1923.
Erdogan said Turkey and Poland would speed up their efforts aiming to rise the trade volume between them to 20 billion Euros by the year 2013.
Noting that he had quite fruitful talks during his visit, Erdogan said, "Poland is also a country which has always stood by us during our EU negotiation process".