Have Russia, Turkey reached Syrian simpatico yet?
Russia and Turkey have attained an "unprecedented" level of cooperation in many areas, some observers say, though the Kurds in Syria may remain a sticking point.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have seen a lot of each other this year. And when they're not meeting, they seem to be constantly talking with each other on the phone — so often that Russian journalists joke Putin speaks more frequently with Erdogan than with Russia's closest ally, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
The most recent get-together came Nov. 13 in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi in Russia. It was their fifth meeting this year.
The men have a lot to talk about — mostly related to Syria. But during the joint press conference afterward, they talked mainly about trade and lifting the remaining sanctions Russia imposed after Turkey shot down a Russian military jet in November 2015. One of the sanctions still in place is visa restrictions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said after the meeting that the issue had been raised, but he was vague: "These, let’s say, concerns of the Turkish side are taken into account, [and] work on them continues."
Before he departed for Sochi, Erdogan said he would discuss the Syria situation with his Russian colleague, paying special attention to the Syrian Kurds issue and a planned Moscow-backed Syrian congress.
