Erdogan says Turkey in talks with US, Russia over Syria

By Meryem Goktas

ISTANBUL

Turkey is in talks with the U.S. and Russia to prevent further escalation of tensions in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"While discussing all this, the issue we insisted on was that the increasing tensions in the region would not be right and the crisis in the region should end with the establishment of peace,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

The Turkish president said that he has shared footages of Syria's Douma with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Erdogan said he also spoke with U.S. president Donald Trump over the issue of chemical attacks in Douma, adding that Turkey has a strong position against the use of it.

The Assad regime has been blamed for a chemical attack Saturday night in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, killing 78 civilians and injuring hundreds of others, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency.

Erdogan also stressed the importance of opposing use of conventional weapons in addition to chemical weapons.

"Obviously, deaths with chemical weapons are a real tragedy, a disaster, but on the other hand when barrel bombs with conventional weapons drop, they do not distinguish between people, children, women, elderly and they kill all of them mercilessly," he said.

“In front of all this we want the coalition forces especially the U.S. and Russia to be sensitive here [use of conventional weapons],“ he said.

Additionally, Erdogan said that Turkey continues its determined stance against the fight against terrorism in Syria's Afrin.