Putin, Erdogan discuss situation in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have discussed the situation in Syria and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the narrow format talks, according to Russian RIA Novosti news agency. “There are common actions that we must take,” Erdogan said at a meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council co-chaired by President Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan today. “The talks on these topics allowed us to create a platform to resolve these issues.” According to Erdogan, Russia and Turkey have obligations in the region in terms of Iraq, Syria and the Armenian -Azerbaijani conflict. Russian Itar-Tass news agency also reported that five documents were signed as a result of the Fourth Meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council. The agency said that Putin offered to hold a Russia-Turkey bilateral year of tourism, as bilateral tourism was on the rise. “In 2012, 3.6 million Russian tourists visited Turkey,” Putin said after a fourth session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council. “The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey may exceed four million people,” he said, adding that “the number of Turkish nationals visiting the Russian Federation is also growing”. “We discussed today the possibility to hold a bilateral year of tourism in Russia and Turkey,” Putin added. The sides also discussed prospects for expanding cultural-humanitarian ties. Putin reminded reporters that the first full-format session of the Russian-Turkish Public Forum was held in Kazan on November 20. President Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired on Friday a session of the High-Level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council that focused on economic, humanitarian and energy projects.