YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Expert on Turkish Affairs Hakob Chakryan says the August 8 Putin-Erdogan meeting in St. Petersburg was simply an expression of goodwill, with the vision of restoring the previous level of relations.

“The sides just expressed willingness to meet with one another, however not a single concrete result has been documented. Judging by Erdogan’s speech following the private talks, one can say that he had a pretty desperate look, and his flattering to score points with Putin, perhaps mean that the meeting didn’t satisfy Erdogan. He wanted the Russian-Turkish relations to be restored quickly, because he suffered big economic losses after freezing the relations. In 2013, Turkey exported 1.3 billion USD worth products to Russia, in 2014 – 1.8 billion, meanwhile in 2016 it amounted only 80 million. In addition, 2 million Russian tourists travel to Turkey annually, and in general, they spent around 1.7 billion USD”, Chakryan said.