Black Sea? Erdogan advises Kyiv and Moscow: “Act responsibly”

O Turkish President today urged Russia and Ukraine to act “responsiblely” in the Black Sea, where commercial ships are regularly attacked, in a joint statement with their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“ We cannot, in any case, accept the attacks [on civilian ships], regardless of who the authors or justifications are. We call on all parties to act responsibly on this issue,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He stressed that these attacks and actions that further exacerbate tensions in the Black Sea “do not serve anyone’s interests”.

The Ukrainian President, for his part, considered it “undispensable at all levels to send signs to Russia indicating that there is no alternative to peace and that support for Ukraine will continue”.

Ankara has never supported sanctions against Russia since the beginning of the war in 2022 and is in contact with both Moscow and Kyiv. In September, he presented them with a protocol of agreement to put an end to the attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea, attributed to the two parties at war since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Not only has the initiative failed, but drone attacks have multiplied since early October off Bulgaria and Romania. NATO has announced the mobilisation of additional means.

As a member of the Atlantic Alliance, Ankara has already hosted peace negotiations between the two countries and regularly claims to be ready to organise new rounds of negotiations.

“ We will continue our talks with the parties concerned with a view to restoring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea. I am convinced that reaching an agreement on this issue would also give new impetus to efforts to establish a lasting peace in Ukraine,” the Turkish President insisted.

A message already transmitted on Wednesday during a phone call with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Friday at the G20 summit in Atlanta.

Negotiations to end the war have been stalled since the beginning of the year. A meeting between Russians, Ukrainians and Americans may take place in November in the United Arab Emirates to relaunch peace efforts, but Washington has not yet confirmed this information.

“We have addressed (...) the perspectives of such a format and other possibilities, in particular the possibility of involving Turkey, Europe and all partners”, Volodymyr Zelensky said, stressing “the possibility of a meeting here in Turkey”.

In response to the Russian attacks that devastated its energy infrastructure, since the start of the Russian full-scale offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been regularly conducting drone attacks against industrial installations in Russia. These attacks aim at exhausting the source of revenue from hydrocarbons that finance the Kremlin's war effort.

Recently, Donald Trump vehemently criticized these Ukrainian attacks, considering that they aggravated the dizzying rise in oil prices recorded since the start of the war in Iran by Washington and Israel.