Turkey, Russia try to avoid crisis

Turkey and Russia have maintained calm in their relations after a Russian air strike killed three Turkish soldiers on Feb. 9 near the town of al-Bab in northern Syria, in an apparent move to prevent tension again after the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish military in 2015. 

While Russia claimed the air strikes were launched based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military, the Turkish military strongly denied Moscow's claim. 

"Unfortunately, our military, while carrying out strikes on terrorists, were guided by coordinates given to them by our Turkish partners. Turkish servicemen should not have been present at those coordinates," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters on Feb. 10.

Peskov said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was scheduled to visit Russia next month, signaling that the recent rapprochement between the two countries had not been damaged. 

Russia and Turkey will hold a high-level cooperation council meeting in March. 

The Turkish military has been regularly and mutually sharing information with its Russian counterparts in regards to the Euphrates Shield Operation for a period of approximately one month in line with an agreement between the two countries signed on Jan. 12 with the aim of preventing troops from harming each other, said a written statement by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). 

The Turkish military elements that were hit by Russian warplane were in the same location for approximately 10 days, said the TSK statement.

"Finally, on  Feb. 8, after a rocket was fired from the region controlled by the Russian Federation at the point where friendly elements were located, the coordinates of the point where our elements were located was...