ANKARA, May 14, (WNM staff/Newswires) - Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu have held telephone talks on Tuesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“Akar and Shoigu discussed regional security, recent developments in Syria’s Idlib province and ways to ease tensions in the region in accordance with the agreements reached in Sochi,” the statement reads.

Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey held a telephone conversation on Monday, discussing the Idlib issue. The Turkish leader said that “ceasefire violations in the Idlib de-escalation zone have reached a staggering level.” He also pointed out that rising tensions in the region “jeopardize efforts to establish a constitutional commission and is harmful to the political settlement process in Syria.”

Putin and Erdogan at their Sochi meeting on September 17, 2018, agreed to create a 15-20 kilometers wide demilitarized zone along the line of contact in the Idlib province. However, Ankara asked for additional time before the launch of joint patrols, as Turkey was unable to ensure security. On March 8, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that the country’s armed forces had started patrolling in Idlib in accordance with the agreements reached with Russia.

Over the weekend, media reports emerged indicating increasing pressure from the U.S. on Turkey regarding it's relationship with Russia: A high-ranking diplomat from Ankara had told German newspaper Bild: “The economic crisis in Turkey is increasing due to Erdogan’s aggressive foreign policy. There won’t be a S-400 delivery in July, as the Turkish President has announced, because the purchase would lead to sanctions from Washington – and with the current crisis with the lira, this would be an economic downfall for Turkey.” A spokesman for the Turkish government refuted the report.

Russian state media such as TASS news agency have not delivered any coment on the news.