Russian President Vladimir Putin during a telephone conversation with Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan expressed concern over military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday.
"Developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone were discussed. The Russian side expressed deep concern over the ongoing hostilities and the increasing involvement of Middle East terrorists," the report reads.
Putin also informed Erdogan "about his meetings with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the efforts to reach a ceasefire and de-escalate the crisis as soon as possible."
In addition, the Kremlin press service reports that the leaders of the two countries agreed " to maintain coordination between Russian and Turkish foreign and defense ministries as well as the two countries’ special services."
Political settlement in Syria
The leaders also discussed interaction in the Syrian direction.
"The topic of interaction in the Syrian direction was discussed. The parties stressed the importance of cooperation in implementing the existing agreements on stabilizing Idlib and the east bank of the Euphrates. They also shared opinions on the issues of the political settlement in Syria, including with support from the Astana process guarantor states," the report says.
Idlib is the only region of Syria, a large part of which still remains in the hands of militants. In 2017, a northern de-escalation zone was created there, where extremists who refused to lay down their arms in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Guta and southern regions of the country moved. There are observation posts of the Turkish army in the province.
Situation in Libya
Putin and Erdogan also discussed prospects for normalizing the situation in Libya and activating inter-Libyan peace talks.
"The Libyan agenda was also covered, including prospects for further normalization of the situation and stepping up intra-Libyan peace talks," the report says.
For several years, two bodies of executive power exist in Libya in parallel - the Government of National Concord (GNA) of Fayiz Sarraj in Tripoli and a temporary cabinet in the east of the country supported by the Libyan National Army Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. In the spring of 2019, Haftar launched an offensive in Tripoli, in response to which the GNA turned to Turkey for support after the parties concluded a memorandum of military cooperation on 28 November 2019. Following that, all official contacts of the opposing sides completely stopped, and attempts to sit them down at the negotiating table to date have not led to the desired results.
The conversation was initiated by the Turkish side.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS