Announcement comes a day after the government in Ankara quashed a military coup.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo an will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the first week of August, according to a report by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
The report Sunday cited an anonymous “presidential source.” It did not give the exact date for the meeting nor did it say where it is expected to take place. Putin agreed to the meeting in a phone conversation with Erdo an, in which the Russian president expressed support “for Turkey following Friday’s attempted coup,” the Anadolu report said.
Turkish government officials said on Saturday they have quashed the coup. At least 265 people have been killed in the violence that ensued after a fraction of the military rolled out tanks onto the streets on Friday evening in Istanbul and Ankara to take over.
Erdo an vowed severe punishment of alleged participants in the coup and its suspected supporters. At least 6,000 people have been detained, most of them from the military, but also many judges and other judiciary officials.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul earlier this month | EPA/Turkish President Press Office
On Sunday, Erdo an and other government and ruling AK Party officials attended mid-day prayers at Istanbul’s main mosque where coffins with remains of some of the victims of the violence were resting before being taken for burial.
Relations between Ankara and Moscow have been severely strained since last November when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on the Turkish-Syrian border, killing the pilot as he attempted to parachute to safety. Diplomatic relations have been frozen and Russia slapped a tourist and a trade ban on Turkey. It was lifted two weeks ago following Erdo an’s public apology for the incident and the pilot’s death.