09 October 2017•Update: 09 October 2017
By Emrah Guney, Ismail Ozdemir and Enes Kaplan
KIEV
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on Monday in Ukraine's capital of Kiev for one-day official talks.
Erdogan was accompanied by a large delegation including Chief of Turkish General Staff Hulusi Akar, Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isik, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik and Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.
Erdogan firstly visited a military monument in Kiev to lay a wreath.
During his one-day visit, he will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko and attend the 6th meeting of the Turkey-Ukraine High-Level Strategic Council.
The Turkish president will also meet Parliamentary Speaker Andriy Parubiy, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and representatives of the Crimean Tatar Society.
Ukraine has been wracked by conflict since March 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea after an illegal independence vote.
The UN General Assembly voted to proclaim the Russian annexation illegal.
Along with many UN members, the U.S., the EU and Turkey also do not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
Additionally, fighting in eastern Ukraine between the government and Russian separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014, according to the UN.
Erdogan will later leave Kiev for Serbia and is scheduled to attend a dinner to be hosted by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
