Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold phone talks later on Friday with US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding the situation in Syria's Idlib, Erdogan's spokesman Fahrettin Altun
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold phone talks later on Friday with US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding the situation in Syria's Idlib, Erdogan's spokesman Fahrettin Altun.
"Our president will hold talks today [on Idlib] with Macron, Merkel, Johnson and Trump," Altun said, as quoted by the Haberturk broadcaster.
He confirmed that Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to hold a personal meeting as soon as possible during a phone talk earlier in the day.
The situation in Idlib escalated on Thursday after terrorists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia) launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian government forces. The Syrian army opened return fire. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Turkish military, who should not have been there, also came under fire.
As a result, 33 soldiers of the Turkish army were killed, and more than 30 were injured. Immediately after receiving information concerning the presence of the Turkish military, the Russian side took measures to establish a complete ceasefire by the Syrian troops to ensure that the bodies of the killed Turkish servicemen were safely evacuated to their homeland. The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Aerospace Forces had not been used in the area.
Erdogan convened a security meeting after the attack. The NATO Council will hold consultations on the situation in Syria later in the day at Ankara's request. The US State Department told Sputnik that it supported Turkey as its NATO ally.
The Russian embassy in Turkey, which has previously received threats, boosted security on Thursday evening.
