MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in St. Petersburg for first talks to reset bilateral relations after the crisis over the downing of the Russian plane.
"Right now, Turkey is in a lot of problems. I think these moves represent the desperate actions due to a lack of alternative options," Gulen told Al Arabiya in an interview, answering the question what was behind the Turkey's policy of rapprochement with Iran and Russia.
In November 2015 Turkey downed a Russian Su-24 plane, which was on an anti-terror mission in Syria. Following the incident, relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated, with Moscow demanding that Ankara apologize for downing the plane and cover any associated material losses to the country and the pilot's family. In June, Russia-Turkey relations began to thaw after the Turkish president apologized in a letter to his Russian counterpart for the incident and offered his condolences to the family of the killed pilot.
