Ankara, Moscow agree to ease ban on Turkish firms

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed Friday to remove visa and work permit sanctions against Turkish nationals and businesses.

"We expect Russia to completely remove [economic] restrictions," Erdogan said at a news conference with Putin in Moscow.

"Only in this way will it be possible for us to reach our previously announced target of $100 billion trade volume."

Putin, for his part, said that Russia would "very soon" remove visa and work permit sanctions against Turkey.

"The ban on Turkish firms will be removed as soon as possible. A political decision was taken in this regard. It will be implemented very soon," he added.

The last meeting between Erdogan and Putin was held last August after Turkey and Russia patched up the fallout from the downing of a Russian jet over the Turkish-Syrian border in November 2015.

After the Nov. 24, 2015 jet crisis, Moscow took several measures against Turkey, including restriction of visa-free travel to a ban on imports of certain foodstuffs and a ban on the sale of Turkish holiday packages by tourist agencies to Russians. Russia had also called on its nationals to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination following the crisis.

Since last summer, Russia has relaxed the sanctions imposed on Turkey in response to the jet incident and the countries have worked together to bring a cease-fire and political solution to Syria.

Relations were tested in December when the Russian ambassador in Ankara, Andrey Karlov, was killed in the capital. However, Putin declared the shooting a “provocation” designed to undermine Turkey-Russia relations.