Condemning West For Sowing Panic In Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister: Unnecessary Statements Must Be Avoided

Menlu Turki Mevlut Çavuşoğlu. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

JAKARTA - Statements by some Western countries regarding the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine only lead to increased panic and worsening of the economic situation in the region, criticized Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt avuşoğlu. in an interview with TRT television.

"Unnecessary statements should be avoided. Comments that Russia will attack Ukraine today will cause unrest in Ukraine tomorrow. It will also cause economic damage to Ukraine and its national currency," he stressed, as quoted from TASS, February 11.

"We see this picture as inconsistent with reality. Is there tension? Yes, there is. Is there a possibility of conflict? Yes, there is. But we don't need to voice this with megaphone diplomacy, as some Western countries do," continued avuşoğlu.

According to avuşoğlu, Turkey supports dialogue with Russia. "As a country that maintains good relations with both sides, we continue to take steps to reduce tensions between Moscow and Kyiv," he said.

At the same time, avuşoğlu stressed that some of the steps Ankara is taking are commonplace, some of them being carried out through diplomatic channels. Ankara's senior diplomat reiterated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "wants to first defuse tensions and then take steps for long-term stability in the region."

For information, the United States and Western countries are worried about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, along with the buildup of about 100.000 Moscow troops on the border of the two countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information an "empty and baseless" escalation of tensions, stressing Russia poses no threat to anyone.

Even so, he did not rule out the possibility of provocations being ignited to justify such claims, warning that attempts to resolve problems in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.