MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkey could have tried presenting itself to the West as a country of "civilized Islamists" but failed to reach its goals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"I suppose Turkey's current leadership could have decided to show the Americans, the Europeans that 'yes, we are carrying out Islamization, but we are modern, civilized Islamists. Keep in mind that we are Islamists, but we are your Islamists.' Maybe there was such a subtext. But nothing good came out of it," Putin said at an annual press conference.
17 December 2015, 09:00 GMT
"And the goals, if there were any goals, were not just not reached. On the contrary, the Turkish goals only worsened the situation," he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a major end-of-the-year press conference, addressing the nation's economic concerns and issues on the international agenda.
