Erdoğan pays first visit to Russia after mending strained ties, failed coup attempt

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay a visit to St. Petersburg on Aug. 9, marking a first since mending strained ties with Russia last year and the president’s first foreign visit after a failed coup attempt on July 15 in Turkey.Erdoğan will fly to Russia on Aug. 9 for his first face to face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow and Ankara started to mend ties damaged by the downing of a Russian jet last year.Turkey and Russia ended eight months of tension in late June after Erdoğan wrote a letter to his counterpart to express his deep sorrow over the shooting down of a Russian warplane along the Syrian border on Nov. 24, 2015.Russia was one of the first countries to condemn the failed coup attempt on July 15 and express its support to the democratically-elected Turkish government, to which Turkey had expressed its satisfaction with the unconditional support from Putin.Putin called Erdoğan on July 17, a day after security forces quashed a coup attempt staged by a group of high-ranking officers within the army, which the government and Erdoğan accuse U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen and his supporters of orchestrating. Putin reportedly told the Turkish president that “Russia found anti-constitutional acts and violence unacceptable and is hoping for the restoration of order and stability in Turkey.”After mending ties between the countries, Russia recently officially removed all economic and touristic sanctions which had been put against Turkey.