Lavrov: Russia, Turkey to resume co-op on resolving Syrian crisis

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 29 Trend: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that Russia and Turkey will resume the cooperation in finding the ways of resolving the Syrian crisis, RIA Novosti reported June 29. Lavrov made the remarks during a press conference following the talks with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault. “Until recently, we had very close contacts with Turkey on resolving the Syrian crisis. But those contacts were cut off due to the known reasons,” he said. Given that Turkey’s president sent a letter to his Russian counterpart June 27 and the two presidents discussed the possibilities of normalizing the relations during the phone conversation June 29, the two countries are likely to resume the cooperation on finding the ways of resolving the Syrian crisis, according to Lavrov. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter of condolences to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin June 27 over the death of Russian Su-24 pilot and expressed regret over the incident. Erdogan said Turkey "shares the pain of the downed Su-24 pilot's death with his family" and "sees it as Turkey's pain". The relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after the Su-24 bomber incident. Following the incident, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on taking measures for ensuring the country's national security and special economic measures against Turkey.