Moscow, Nov 21 (UNI/Sputnik) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that it was "normal" for Turkey to promote the concept of pan-Turkic rapprochement, but its depiction on the map presented to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should have pinned its center in Russia's Altai region.
The map was presented to Erdogan last week by the leader of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli. In addition to parts of Russia's territories in the south and Siberia, the map also incorporated the Balkan countries, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as parts of China, Iran and Mongolia.
"Our Turkish partners foster the idea of Turkic unity and it is normal. But I can only regret that the map does not have a big red star marking the center of the Turkic world. It is located not in Turkey but in Russia, in Altai, which is a sacred place for any Turk as that is where they originate from. I am saying this is a Turkologist," Peskov told the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.