Russia, Turkey to take final step in visa-free regime

The final official step in the process of introducing a visa-free regime between Black Sea neighbors Russia and Turkey will be taken during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s three-day visit to Russia, which kicks off today,"Today’s Zaman" reported.

In January Turkish and Russian officials signed in Moscow a readmission agreement in a step towards a visa-free travel regime between their countries. With the foreign ministries of the two countries having now completed all necessary bureaucratic procedures, the two sides will now exchange notes, which will pave the way for 30 days of visa-free travel within a 90-day period for the citizens of both nations, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday. The implementation will commence around 30 days after the exchange of notes, on April 20, the agency said.

During Erdogan’s visit, the second meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council between Russia and Turkey -- an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism -- will be held with Erdogan and Medvedev co-presiding the meeting. Russia and Turkey agreed last year during Medvedev’s May visit to launch the High-Level Cooperation Council and held the first meeting then. Accordingly, Medvedev and Erdogan will meet annually to review ties.

While in Moscow, Erdogan will also hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and will address a meeting of the Turkish-Russian Business Forum. On Wednesday evening he will proceed to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, a federal subject of Russia. He is expected to return home on Thursday.

Ahead of the visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Turkey’s democratic maturity, when he spoke of the latest upheavals in a number of North African and Middle Eastern countries.

Experience shows very clearly that Islam and democracy can live together and Turkey is the best example of this, Lavrov said in an interview with a Russian radio station, Anatolia reported on Monday. Arguing that the upheavals in a number of North African and Middle Eastern countries are not related to "radical Islamists," Lavrov said people in those countries have been asking for democratic changes in regimes, but not the implementation of Shariah law. "Radical Islamist powers," in every country might be willing to use these upheavals in their own interests, Lavrov noted.

"However, despite this, the situation should not be dramatized. Experience has shown that Islam and democracy are quite compatible with each other. Turkey is the best example for this," he was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

Erdogan’s visit coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow, signed on March 16, 1921, a pact concluded in Moscow between the government of the Turkish Assembly -- before the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 -- and the Soviet Union.

The timing of the visit has sparked reactions from the Armenian media and hard-line Armenian politicians.

"The upcoming Moscow visit … coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow, which put an end to the existence of Western Armenia. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, you can just guess. The fact is that hardly anything happens by chance in politics, and Erdogan is well aware on what day he arrives in Moscow," an article on www.PanArmenian.net said last Friday.

"The date of Erdogan’s visit to Moscow was not chosen by accident. It marks the 90th anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow, with which Bolsheviks ‘sold out’ Armenia, the leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnakstutyun (ARFD), Vahan Hovhannisyan, told a press conference on Friday," Armenian agency, NEWS.am, reported.


/APA/