MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday began talks over a potential ceasefire in northern Syria with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan by offering condolences over the recent killing of Turkish soldiers there.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling AK Party during meeting at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey, March 4, 2020. Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
Putin, speaking alongside Erdogan at the Kremlin, said the situation in Idlib province, where their armies are facing off in a war that has displaced nearly a million people in three months, had become so tense it required one-on-one talks.
Erdogan said he hoped the meeting, which was initiated by Putin, would agree measures to ease the conflict.
A senior Turkish official told Reuters that the two leaders were likely to finally agree a ceasefire, after weeks of diplomacy failed to halt fighting between Turkey and allied Syrian rebels and Russian-backed Syrian government forces.
“Political diplomacy will be more determinant today than military diplomacy,” the official said.
Russian air strikes have propelled a push by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to retake the last large rebel-held territory