Online Desk/

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Russia’s “unilateral referendum” in occupied territories of Ukraine. BBC reported this information in a report on Wednesday.

Erdogan called the referendum a “source of concern” in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Erdogan, the referendum will “make it difficult to revive the diplomatic process”.

Turkey has good relations with NATO members Russia and Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, he has been trying to mediate between the two sides.

Incidentally, pro-Russian separatists have organized referendums in four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

According to Russian-appointed election officials, 98 percent of people voted “yes” in the referendum to join Russia.

Western countries have already said the referendum results will show a majority of people want to join Russia. They say Russia is now revealing what it already knew about the outcome.

Ukrainian officials called the vote a “propaganda show”. The so-called referendum was held from September 23 to September 27.

Western countries have said they will never recognize the results of this ‘fake’ referendum.