Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov once considered pursuing a career with a leading Turkish newspaper thanks to his knowledge of the Turkish language, the spokesman revealed, speaking to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper in an interview published Monday.
"I did not study journalism, so I could not say that there was a definite appeal to me. [Journalist] Cenk Baslamis was in the Moscow office of Milliyet and we were friends then. I was still interested in information and knowledge. Journalism is still 'terra incognita' for me," Peskov admitted.
"Unfortunately, I cannot visit Turkey as much as I want to, but, for instance, I celebrated one birthday in Turkey. I went to Istanbul with my friends. Most of my friends hadn't visited Turkey before; I showed them Istanbul and I liked that very much. They all fell in love with [the city]," Peskov said.
Ultimately, the Kremlin spokesman said that "both Turkey and Russia [have] changed a lot" in the time since he last lived in Turkey.
"The world also changed a lot. Unfortunately, we are living in a very hostile environment…In this world, there aren't that many friendships, new friends are not made easily. New enemies arrive. Turkey has historically been a friend. We share a common interest. Of course there may be fights and making up, but this common interest stands above all," Peskov concluded.