Turkey establishes direct contact line with Russia over Syria

Turkey and Russia have agreed to keep in close contact regarding the war in Syria in order to avoid a repetition of incidents such as last year's downing of a Russian warplane, a Turkish presidential spokesman told local media on Wednesday.

Russia is waging a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader.

"We have agreed to be in close contact in order to avoid such incidents," Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told A Haber.

"In this framework, our chief of General Staff and his Russian counterpart have established a direct line," Kalin said. "They are in talks on this."

On Tuesday, Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held lengthy talks in St. Petersburg to normalize ties after nine months of tension.

The talks focused on Syria, as the two sides decided to establish a mechanism to exchange information on the country, Kalin said, adding that the Russian chief of General Staff was also part of the discussions.

"They are in close contact on Syria, bilateral relations and regional issues as well as air space," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara and Moscow agreed to build a mechanism on Syria, which includes officials from the intelligence services, foreign ministries and armed forces.

The agreement was made during a meeting between the Turkish and Russian presidents in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Cavusoglu said. Endit