Erdoğan and Putin in intense talks after attack on Turkish troops in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have engaged in intense talks a few days after a fatal attack on Turkish troops in Syria. 

The two leaders talked about the recent developments in war-torn Syria and efforts to find a solution to the humanitarian crisis in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to a presidential source, who spoke to state-run Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media. 

This phone conversation came one day after Erdoğan and Putin spoke over the phone on Nov. 25 to discuss bilateral and regional issues. 

A number of issues topped the conversation then as well, including an attack on Turkish soldiers near al-Bab in northern Syria. 

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded in an air strike "thought to have been carried" out by Syrian government forces early on Nov. 24, the first anniversary of Turkey's downing of a Russian jet along the border with Syria, the Turkish Armed Forces announced on Nov. 24.

Ankara spoke with the Russian military to probe the strike targeting Turkish troops, sources told daily Hürriyet on Nov. 25. 

While the attack prompted initial suspicions of an attempt to bring Turkey and Russia face to face again in Syria, one year after the jet incident that severely harmed the relations between the two, Russia adopted a cooperative attitude and assured Turkey via communication channels established as part of recent rapprochement initiatives that the strike was not carried out by them, sources said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told Reuters on Nov. 26 that Turkey's rapprochement with Russia has not changed Ankara's position that Syrian...