Russia’s Lavrov to meet with Turkish HDP opposition leader in Moscow

PanARMENIAN.Net - Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has said he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days during a visit to Moscow, Today’s Zaman reports.

“Barring any last-minute obstacles, we will have a meeting in Moscow with Lavrov on Thursday, December 22,” Demirtas said in a televised interview Saturday evening.

He said he will also open an HDP office in the Russian capital on the same day.

The planned visit comes amid a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Russia, which erupted when Turkish jet fighters downed a Russian Su-24 near the border with Syria after it violated Turkish airspace. Russia denies the downed aircraft did in fact violate it and vowed to retaliate.

A meeting between Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu that was held after the downing of the Russian jet has produced little progress in easing the tension. A summit that was to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this month after the jet incident has also been canceled.

Putin made clear on Saturday as well that ties with Ankara will not improve under the current Turkish leadership, although he said Russia wanted to maintain good relations with the Turkish people.

“I want to repeat it now: we consider the Turkish people a friendly nation, and we do not want to disrupt relations namely with the Turkish people," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying in a new documentary that was to be released on Sunday. As for the current Turkish leadership, "nothing is eternal," Putin said.

Demirtas criticized the Turkish government for not taking measures to address problems faced by Turkish nationals living, studying or working in Russia, fallout from the diplomatic crisis between the two governments.

“Tens, even hundreds, of thousands of people who do business with Russia, study there or work there are affected. We want to use our power to help solve these problems,” he said.

Criticizing the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) policies, which he said kept producing crises in foreign policy, Demirtas said the HDP office in Moscow would help solve problems faced by anyone with a Turkish passport.