By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Kremlin on Monday said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are political figures who do not engage in “populism.”
"Putin and Erdogan are very serious political figures, who have vast political experience and do not engage in populism. They are politicians and state figures who mean what they say," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press briefing in Moscow.
Peskov further said Erdogan and Putin mostly address “concrete, substantive matters related to mutually beneficial bilateral ties" between Türkiye and Russia, adding that "this is important for the peoples of the two countries."
Peskov also said that Russia will continue dialogue with Yerevan on the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), amid comments by Armenia’s premier earlier in the day on the country’s possible withdrawal from the organization.
"As for the statement of the prime minister of Armenia (Nikol Pashinyan), then, of course, we will continue our dialogue with our Armenian friends, we will talk with them on the subject of our further joint participation in the activities of the CSTO," he said.
Peskov further said the CSTO “has authority among” the participating countries, and that it has previously demonstrated effectiveness in various instances.
"This is an organization that has previously demonstrated its effectiveness in various situations, and an organization that, from our point of view, has the potential for further development," he added.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a press conference in Yerevan that Armenia’s potential withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) remains on the country’s agenda, but only in the case where the organization becomes “incompetent.”
The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.