Turkish president offers to hold leaders' summit on Ukraine to make Istanbul a 'center of peace'

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday offered to hold a summit involving the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, as well as the US, turning Istanbul into a "center of peace."

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said his "greatest wish" is to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara. "I would even like to bring [US President Donald] Trump along,” he underlined, as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul for a second round of negotiations.

"It was truly a magnificent meeting. As a result of this meeting, although there had been prisoner exchanges before, this time the number of prisoner exchanges exceeded a thousand. Beyond exceeding a thousand, there was also the return of some bodies from Russia and Ukraine outside of this prisoner exchange. These numbers are also very large. We are truly proud of this," Erdogan said.

Erdogan announced that in the event of leaders coming together in Türkiye, he “will also meet with them at this meeting so that we can turn Istanbul into a center of peace.”

He hailed Monday's talks as a “significant achievement” despite Sunday’s incident in Russia, which involved a massive overnight air attack by Ukraine using 162 drones, targeting more than 40 Russian military aircraft — including A-50, Tu-95, and Tu-22M3 heavy bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons.​​​​​​​

Erdogan emphasized that Türkiye's stance has been clear since the first day of the war and that they never wanted to see conflict, fighting, war, and oppression in the region.

“We are sincerely striving to establish a sustainable peace that both sides will accept. Türkiye is a country that has earned everyone's trust with its fair stance,” he said.

​​​​​​​Developments in Syria

“As Syria achieves stability and peace, we believe that all its neighbors and all countries in the region will benefit from it,” Erdogan said, expressing pleasure with the decision of European countries to lift sanctions on Syria.

“After the revolution on Dec. 8, we're seeing Syria quickly get back on its feet, with support from all the friendly countries in the region, especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia. We will continue to support the Syrian people and government, our neighbors and brothers, with all our resources, God willing,” he said.

The Turkish president also announced that alongside Turkish company AJet’s operation of regular flights to Syria, Syrian Airlines will soon begin flights to Türkiye.