{"id":13219,"date":"2022-02-05T00:04:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T16:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=13219"},"modified":"2022-02-06T14:05:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T06:05:06","slug":"the-west-to-blame-for-making-russia-ukraine-situation-worse-blasts-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=13219","title":{"rendered":"The West to blame for making Russia-Ukraine situation \u2018worse\u2019, blasts Erdogan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ANKARA, February 5 &#8212; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of making the Russia-Ukraine crisis \u201cworse\u201d and slammed the US President Joe Biden\u2019s stance, in comments published by local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erdogan\u2019s comments, made on his return from a trip to Kyiv yesterday, come as he tries to set up a Russia-Ukraine summit aimed at easing fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to invade Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erdogan has tried to position Turkey, which is a member of the Nato defense alliance, as a neutral mediator close to both Moscow and Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He issued some of his strongest criticism yet of the European and US positions on the crisis in an interview with Turkish reporters on his plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg\" alt=\"erdogan\" class=\"wp-image-13220\" width=\"510\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-768x560.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-137x100.jpg 137w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-350x255.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cUnfortunately, the West until now has not made any contribution to resolving this issue. I can say they are only making things worse,\u201d<\/em> Erdogan said, adding that Biden <em>\u201chas not yet been able to demonstrate a positive approach\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Praising former German chancellor Angela Merkel and her approach to Ukraine, Erdogan said Europe was suffering \u201cserious issues at the leadership level\u201d after her departure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Erdogan reaffirmed his offer to host a Ukraine-Russia crisis summit in Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said on the plane that Putin has \u201cresponded positively\u201d to the idea and that a date for the Russian leader\u2019s visit would now be set soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On his flight back, Erdogan also criticized the international media\u2019s coverage of the crisis, which has relied heavily on US intelligence assessments that the Kremlin rejects and Kyiv has been cautious to accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cI believe the international media\u2019s escalation of the issue between Ukraine and Russia has caused more damage than good,\u201d<\/em> he said, quoted by the CNN Turk broadcaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erdogan and Zelensky also signed an agreement expanding the production of parts in Ukraine for a Turkish combat drone whose sale to Kyiv has angered Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/\">NMT<\/a> as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afp.com\/en\/news-hub\">AFP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANKARA, February 5 &#8212; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of making the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",800,583,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-300x219.jpg",300,219,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP-768x560.jpg",640,467,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",640,466,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",800,583,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",800,583,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",800,583,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",800,583,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_AFP.jpg",652,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=15\" rel=\"category\">Politics<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=59\" rel=\"category\">World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13228,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13219\/revisions\/13228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}