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Turkey offers sea evacuation for wounded fighters holed up in Azovstal plant
Turkey has room for such things, now that they’ve resettled so many Syrian refugees across the border in Syrian Kurdistan.
[AlArarabiya] NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
member The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
has proposed carrying out a sea evacuation of maimed fighters holed up in a steel works in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
’s front man said on Saturday.

Ibrahim Kalin told Rooters in an interview that he had personally discussed the proposal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv two weeks ago and that it remains "on the table" although Moscow has not agreed to it.

Under the plan, people evacuated from the vast Azovstal steel plant would be taken by land to the port of Berdyansk, which like Mariupol is on the Sea of Azov, and a Ottoman Turkish vessel would take them across the Black Sea to Istanbul, he said.

"If it can be done that way, we are happy to do it. We are ready. In fact, our ship is ready to go and bring the injured soldiers and other civilians to Turkey," said Kalin, who is also Erdogan’s top foreign policy adviser.

Ukraine and Russia did not immediately comment on the possibility of an evacuation by sea.

After weeks of Russian siege and bombardment, Mariupol is in Russian hands, but hundreds of Ukrainian fighters are holding out under heavy fire at the steel works.

A number of civilians who were sheltering in the plant were evacuated this month with the help of the International Committee of the Red Thingy and the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
. Turkey’s proposal included evacuating the civilians who were still there.

COMPLEX TALKS
Zelenskyy has said complex talks are under way to evacuate a large number of maimed soldiers from the steel works in return for the release of Russian prisoners of war.

Russia, which initially said the fighters should surrender, has said little publicly about the talks.

Kalin said the Russian position "changes day to day."

"They look at the security situation on the ground and other dynamics, their negotiations, their own internal coordination," he said. "So sometimes it is hard to get a firm response [or] commitment from either side."

Turkey neighbors Russia and Ukraine, has good ties with both and has tried to facilitate peace talks. It objected to Russia’s invasion and has supplied Kyiv with armed drones though it also opposes Western sanctions on Moscow.

Kalin said the naval evacuation from Berdyansk was one of a number of proposals to reach a ceasefire and carry out an evacuation.

"It may happen, yes. I believe it may happen," he said.

"The boat is still in Istanbul. It is ready to sail but we are waiting for final clearance from Russian and Ukrainian side for it to go to Berdyansk and bring those injured soldiers to Turkey."
Posted by: Fred 2022-05-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=632955