Turkish President Erdogan Tests Positive For Omicron Two Days After Meeting Zelensky in Kiev

The Turkish President took to Twitter to announce that he and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus and have mild symptoms.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has contracted Omicron.

According to his statement on Twitter, the COVID tests he and his wife took earlier have come back positive.

"Today, the result of our COVID-19 test, which I took with my wife after mild symptoms, turned out to be positive. We are having a mild case of the disease that we have learned is an Omicron variant. We're on our mission. We will continue working from home. We are waiting for your prayers," the Turkish President wrote.

Screenshot/Erdogan's Twitter

Earlier this week, Erdogan and his wife paid a visit to Kiev where the Turkish President met his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss the ongoing tensions in Ukraine. Erdogan repeatedly offered Zelensky his help in mediating the crisis, which the Ukrainian President accepted. Erdogan also suggested hosting a meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Erdogan, the US and its Western allies have not done anything to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

"I have to say this very clearly: if you pay attention, the West has unfortunately not contributed anything to solving this matter...I can say they were literally only a hindrance...When we look at...the United States, Biden has not yet shown a positive approach to the matter," Erdogan said during his return flight, as quoted by Reuters.

Turkey shares a maritime border with both Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea. While commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Erdogan said that as a NATO member, Turkey would do what is necessary if Russia invades Ukraine, but at the same time, he has spoken against the sanctions on Russia which have been threatened by the US, UK and the EU.

Russia has repeatedly dismissed the West's allegations that it has been plotting to invade Ukraine, blaming the US for hyping the "Russian threat" topic. Moscow has been stressing that NATO's increased military activity close to Russia's borders as well as active financial and military assistance to Ukraine pose a threat to Russia's national security. In an effort to de-escalate tensions over Ukraine, Russia submitted its security guarantee proposals to the US and NATO in December. Keeping Ukraine out of NATO was among the key requirements outlined by Moscow but the US and NATO responded by saying they would not accept this condition and refused to sacrifice the bloc's so-called "open-door policy".