Turkish mass media: Nursultan Nazarbayev played important role in warming in Russia-Turkey relations
After that the two leaders even held a 40-minute telephone conversation after seven months of silence.
Local experts started guessing who acted as a mediator in the normalization of relations between Moscow and Ankara.
It was Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim and, then, President Ergodan himself who made a statement thanking President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for contributing to restoration of ties between Turkey and Russia.
According to the press service of the Kazakh Embassy in Turkey, many Turkish printed and online mass media dedicated their articles to Russia-Turkey rapprochement with the help of the Kazakh leader.
Thus, popular newspaper Milliyet with a run of 140,000 daily copies published an article praising the role of the Kazakh President in de-escalation of the Turkish-Russian relations.
Two Turkish news agencies sondakika.com and haber7.com also dedicated their materials to Nursultan Nazarbayev who, according to them, thawed ice between Moscow and Ankara.
It was noted that President Nazarbayev used every effort to help Russia and Turkey return to a dialogue. At the meeting with then-Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu on February 6, 2016 in Astana President Nazarbayev stressed that crisis in the Turkish-Russian relations negatively affects Kazakhstan as well.
Many Turkish analytical experts forecast that it will be President Nursultan Nazarbayev who will help mend the Turkish-Russian ties.
For instance, on January 22, 2016 Turkey's Cihan News Agency published an article penned by Hasan Kanbolat entitled "Turkish-Russian tension could be solved by Nazarbayev's leadership" pointing out that the Kazakh President can become a mediator between the two feuding parties.
Karar newspaper, in turn, published an article calling Nursultan Nazarbayev ‘Aqsaqal of the Turkish world' who prevented further escalation of the Turkish-Russian crisis.
Additionally, President Erdogan called his Kazakhstani counterpart this week and extended an invitation to pay an official visit to Ankara in the nearest future.