Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "We Don't Want to Experience a New Chernobyl”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "We expressed our concern about the ongoing conflicts around the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. We do not want to experience a new Chernobyl."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres made statements at the press conference held after the trilateral summit at Potochki Palace.
Tayyip Erdoğan started his speech by greeting Zelenskiy and Guterres. He expressed his great pleasure to be in Lviv upon Zelensky's invitation.
President Erdoğan said,
"We discussed the possibilities of advancing our cooperation and solidarity under the current conditions. Of course, the war that has been going on for about 6 months was the main subject of our talks. On this occasion, I once again emphasized our support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty."
Erdoğan continued his speech with the following statements:
"On behalf of our country and nation, I expressed my condolences for the missile attack on a dormitory in Kharkiv last night, in which 9 civilians were killed and 35 people were injured. We expressed our concern about the ongoing clashes around the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. We do not want to experience a new Chernobyl. As Turkey, we have been and continue to be at the side of our Ukrainian friends, while making efforts to end the conflicts with a diplomatic solution.
Since the beginning of the war, we have dispatched 98 trucks of humanitarian aid material to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Ukrainian people, and we have temporarily hosted nearly 325 thousand Ukrainians in our country. We have received a total of 1507 people, including 1099 orphans and 408 accompanying persons, in our country to host them until the conditions in Ukraine return to normal. During our meeting, we also discussed the dimensions of the physical destruction caused by the war in Ukraine. I shared with Mr. Zelenskiy that we will provide the necessary support for the reconstruction of Ukraine as we have done until today.
As you know, just a month ago, we, the United Nations, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, demonstrated a historic example of cooperation. Not only Ukraine, but the whole world has started to feel the positive repercussions of the Istanbul Memorandum, which enables the safe export of Ukrainian grain to world markets via the Black Sea."
Making statements about
Ukrainian grain, Erdogan made the following statements:
"In your contacts today, we focused on the steps that can be taken to increase the activities of the existing mechanism. In our trilateral meeting, we also discussed the possibilities of turning the positive atmosphere created by the Istanbul Memorandum into a lasting peace. We especially pointed out that the international community should assume more responsibility to revive the diplomatic process.
Personally, I remain convinced that the war will ultimately end at the negotiating table, something that both Mr. Zelenskiy and Mr. Guteress agree with. It is all about finding the shortest and fairest path to the negotiating table. I believe that it is possible to revive negotiations on the basis of the parameters established in Istanbul in March, and we are ready to provide all kinds of support towards this goal, again playing the role of facilitator or mediator.
Of course, during our meeting we discussed the issue of the exchange of prisoners of war and our initiatives on this issue, and I would like to express that we attach great importance to this issue. I believe that those who are following this issue are trying to answer the question, 'I wonder what happened to the exchange of these prisoners? Regarding this issue, we will continue to evaluate the outcome of all our meetings with Mr. Putin and the Russian side today."