15:12

Meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin has started in Sochi.

Axar.az reports that Putin said he hopes settlement of internal situation of Turkey in a press conference before meeting.

Erdogan said Moscow and Ankara have the power to influence incidents in the Middle East together.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin continued his diplomatic push for a plan to establish safe zones in Syria backed by peacekeepers as he began talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday.

Axar.az reports that Russia and Turkey can “change the destiny of the whole region” together, Erdogan told Putin, who said relations between the two countries are acquiring a special status. The meeting is taking place a day after Putin discussed the plan for safe zones with U.S. President Donald Trump in what the White House described as a “very good” phone call.

Putin and Trump agreed to step up efforts to cooperate on resolving the Syria conflict and the fight against terrorism, according to U.S. and Russian statements. A senior U.S. diplomat is attending two days of Russian-led talks on Syria that started Tuesday in Kazakhstan and include discussion of the safe areas.

Syria’s opposition is skeptical about the Russian initiative, which calls for the creation of four buffer zones patrolled by forces that could include troops from Russia, Turkey and Iran. The areas would be set up in the northwestern Idlib province, Homs province in the west, the East Ghouta suburb of the capital Damascus and southern Syria.

The talks on the safe areas taking place in the Kazakh capital, Astana, are “very positive and I’m hopeful we will reach an understanding on this,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Sochi.