Former Swedish PM chides 'emotional' Putin

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL

Sweden’s former prime minister Carl Bildt has said an “emotional” Vladimir Putin’s recent attitudes to Ankara were negative for both Turkey and Russia.

“Putin has reacted emotionally from the Russian point of view but not rationally”, said Bildt who was speaking to Anadolu Agency in Istanbul as he attended a dinner hosted by local think tank, the Global Relations Forum.

“I hope that they see this and can start to come back to a normal relationship,” Bildt said.

The former Swedish PM’s comments came after the Russian president said that he did not see any prospect of rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara.

Putin had been speaking during his annual end-of-year press conference late on Thursday.

Tension between Ankara and Moscow remains high following the downing by Turkey of a Russian SU-24 warplane near the Syrian border on Nov. 24.

Resuming Turkey-PKK peace talks

Bildt, who is also a board member of International Crisis Group and was the Swedish premier between 1991 and 1994, addressed a report on Turkey’s Kurdish question published by the group on Dec. 17.

“The dynamics of the conflict are profoundly dangerous; if this gets out of hand, it will have profoundly negative effects for Turkey,” he said.

The platform called on Turkey to restart negotiations to end its more than three-decade conflict with the terrorist group PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the E.U.

A solution process to end the conflict with the PKK halted in the aftermath of July 20 suicide bombing –blamed on Daesh -- in southeast Turkey where more than 30 pro-Kurdish activists were killed.

Since then more than 200 members of the security forces have been martyred and around 1,700 PKK terrorists killed.