By Nilay Kar Onum
ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey’s foreign minister on Saturday met with the founding president of Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation.
On Twitter, Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote: “We continued our contacts in [the capital] Kazan by meeting with Mintimer Shaimiev,” who served as Tatarstan’s first president, from 1991 to 2010.
“We were briefed about the Islamic Academy of Bolgar and restoration projects of historic Bolgar and Sviyazhsk island,” he added.
On Friday, Cavusoglu also met with Rustam Minnikhanov, Tatarstan’s current president.
Turkey has historic ties with Tatars, who make up of over half of Tatarstan’s population.
Cavusoglu on Friday also met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Sergey Lavrov for what he called “fruitful” talks.
