Turkey-Russia tensions soar

THE LEADERS of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks Friday after 33 Turkish soldiers died in an air strike in Syria, as Ankara ramped up pressure on Europe by threatening to flood in migrants.

The United States and United Nations urged an end to the Russian-backed Syrian offensive against rebel holdouts, but Turkey appeared intent on easing tensions with Moscow by pinning the blame squarely on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The flare-up raised fresh concerns for civilians caught up in the escalation of the horrific eight-year civil war, with the UN saying nearly a million people – half of them children – have been displaced in the bitter cold by the fighting since December.

Thirty-three Turkish troops were killed late Thursday

in the air strike in the northwestern province of Idlib, in the biggest single loss of life by the Turkish military in years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone and looked to scale down tensions, with the Kremlin saying the two expressed “serious concern” about the situation.

“There is always room for dialogue,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

He said the two leaders spoke of “the necessity to do everything” to implement a 2018 ceasefire that has since collapsed between the two countries in Idlib.

Erdogan may travel next week to Moscow for talks, Putin’s spokesman

Dmitry Peskov said. Before the killing of troops, Erdogan spoke of a meeting with Putin on March 5 but said it would also include the leaders of France and Germany.

US condemnation

US President Donald Trump condemned the attack on Turkish troops in a call with Erdogan and again urged Russia and Syria to halt the Idlib operation, the White House said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the attack “despicable and brazen” and said the US was looking at ways to support Turkey, a NATO ally that has recently drifted from the West.

A senior US official, while acknowledging that Turkey had blamed the Assad regime for the strike, said that Russia closely planned all operations with Syria.

“Russia is responsible for this offensive – period,” the official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.

The idea of the “pathetic, keelhauled, draftee Assad military forces fighting the Turks and some of the opposition forces... is laughable,” he said.