ISTANBUL. July 12 (Interfax) - Turkish President Recep Erdogan has said he intends to discuss handing the commanders of the Azov nationalist battalion to Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin in person.
"Before last Friday, these Azov commanders were here. We then got a request, we gave a positive response to it and we handed these six Azov commanders to Kiev. Russia came up with a number of statements on this issue, but the situation got to a positive track after the details became known," Erdogan said at a press conference after the NATO summit in Vilnius on Wednesday.
"I hope that I will have a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August. We will then discuss this problem again," he said.
Earlier, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia began discussing with Turkey the handover the Azov unit representatives to Kiev.
The Azov nationalist battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.