Turkey's Erdogan to attend 3 summits in September

By Ilkay Guder

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to attend three summits in September to be held in Kyrgyzstan, Iran and the U.S.

Elected as the president after the June 24 elections under the new system of government, Erdogan paid his first state visit to Azerbaijan, followed by Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in July, as a tradition of Turkey’s leaders.

The president attended a meeting of NATO heads of state and government in July, as well.

Erdogan has a rather busy foreign agenda for September, including bilateral and delegation meetings.

On Sept. 1-3, he will pay a visit to Kyrgyzstan to attend the High-Level Strategic Council and Turkey-Kyrgyzstan Business Forum.

Erdogan will also attend an opening ceremony of World Nomad Games 2018, hosted by his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

On the last day of his visit, Erdogan is due to attend the 6th Turkic Council Summit.

Erdogan is also expected to meet Nursultan Nazarbayev, Ilham Aliyev, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Viktor Orban; his Kazakh, Azeri, Uzbek and Hungarian counterpart, respectively.

Trilateral summit on Syria

On Sept. 7, the Turkish president will head to Iran to address issues pertaining to Syria.

As the guarantor states of Astana peace talks, Erdogan, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will attend a trilateral leaders’ summit in Tehran.

The countries are known as the "Astana guarantors" due to their role in peace talks in the Kazakhstan capital to end Syria's over seven-year conflict.

The summit is expected to address the Syria issue in detail, Idlib in particular, and the necessary steps required for the political transition in Syria.

The summit was first held in Russian coastal city of Sochi in Nov. 2017 and then in Turkey’s Istanbul in April 2018.

Erdogan will head to the U.S. in the last week of September.

Set to give a speech at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Erdogan is also expected to have a bilateral meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines.

Turkish president will close the agenda with an official visit to Germany on Sept. 28-29, where he is expected to meet German counterpart Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

*Cansu Dikme from Ankara contributed to this story