PM Erdogan proposes Putin a Syria without Assad

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday proposed Russian President Vladimir Putin a government model without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the resolution of the crisis in Syria during his official visit to Moscow. Stating that there is no conflict between the two countries regarding Syria and preservation of stability in the region, Erdogan said that there was no document exchange with Russia over the Turkish jet which was downed in the Mediterranean on June 22. Erdogan visited Assad’s ally Russia, as the crisis in Syria escalated rapidly when a suicide bomber struck the National Security building in Damascus, killing Syria's defense minister and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law. During a three hour meeting with Putin, Erdogan described the approach of Ankara regarding the crisis in Syria. Prime Minister told that they proposed to Russia a government model without Assad and Putin didn’t take a dim view of it but had some reservations in his statement he made when he arrived in Istanbul. During a joint press conference with Putin, Erdogan called for UN Security Council to step in for the crisis in Syria and emphasized that the course of change in the country should be drawn by the people of Syria, not by foreign countries. Erdogan also revealed that Russia has not offered any documents that might shed light on the circumstances surrounding the crash of a Turkish plane off the Syrian coast on June 22. "No document has been shared," he said, adding that the exchange of information between the two countries was limited to a phone call he and Putin had soon after the incident. Turkish and Russian leaders remained committed to maintaining their economic and strategic ties. Both Erdogan and Putin praised expanding trade volume and the Turkish-Russian cooperation in the field of energy, with Putin saying that the two countries may well bring their trade volume up to $100 billion from the current level of $32 billion. Turkey and Russia signed a $20 billion deal for the construction by Russia of a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast. Turkey has also approved Russia's plans to allow the almost $20 billion South Stream pipeline, which aims to supply Southern Europe with 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, to pass under its territorial waters.