Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a telephone conversation on Thursday, following an initiative of the latter. According to an announcement by the Kremlin, the two leaders discussed “some aspects related to Crimea’s accession to Russia, including issues concerning the Crimean Tatar community.”
The Russian President referred to the critical situation in Ukraine, and there was also an exchange of views “on contemporary issues on Russian – Turkish collaboration, in the energy sector”.

Earlier in the day, during the televised Q&A session with citizens, President Vladimir Putin referred to the need to restore the legitimate rights and interests of all the peoples of Crimea who were deported during the Stalinist era, especially the Tatars, whose protection had been promised by Catherine the Great in the late 18th century, after the annexation of the peninsula by the Russian Empire.

Putin called this “a very wise, sound policy” which he also intends to pursue today, adding that this applies not only for “the Crimean Tatars, because during the Stalinist persecution the Armenians the Germans and the Greeks suffered as well, and that is why the representatives of all these peoples cannot be forgotten”.