MOSCOW, May 10 Russian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, Iran's Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Syria's Faisal Mikdad and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu are meeting in Moscow, a correspondent reports. The countries are participants in the «Astana» process to resolve the Syrian crisis.
Also, talks were held in Moscow at the end of April between the defense ministers of the four countries. The Syrian Ministry of Defense then stated that the issue of the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the country's territory was discussed during the meeting. The Turkish Defense Ministry stated that the parties to Moscow discussed specific steps to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus.
In December, Russia hosted the first talks between the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers in 11 years. In 2011, a civil war broke out in Syria. Turkey, which before this conflict maintained close relations with Damascus, took the side of opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since then, Turkey's relations with Syria have remained difficult. Recently, however, both sides, as well as some media outlets, have been talking about the possibility of a gradual normalization.