Turkish and Syrian government

Senior Turkish and Russian diplomats have discussed the latest developments in Syria amid the latter's efforts to mediate a new round of normalization talks between Ankara and Damascus.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz met on Aug. 3 with Russian President Vladimir Putin's Special Representative for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev in Ankara, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Turkey has a long history of conducting extreme operations with its secret services. The most traumatic of these for us was against the Greek minority in Istanbul in September 1955. On August 21, 2013, it was accused of launching a deadly sarin gas attack on a Damascus suburb, killing hundreds.