OREANDA-NEWS. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed his intention to hold telephone talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday evening. He announced this on the air of the Turkish television channel.

"Putin and I will have telephone calls today at 18:00, they will form the further position of Turkey on the Syrian Idlib", Erdogan said. According to the Turkish president, "the current events in Idlib can be called a war." He also stated that the Turkish Armed Forces killed 150 Syrian soldiers as a result of return fire.

In addition, the President of Turkey said that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that Vladimir Putin hold a four-sided summit on Syria on March 5 in Istanbul. However, according to Erdogan, the Russian leader "has not yet given his consent".

Spokesman for the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov, in turn, confirmed that Putin and Erdogan will have a telephone conversation on the evening of February 21.