Moscow hosts landmark Turkey-Syria rapprochement talks

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday hosted his counterparts from Turkey, Syria and Iran for talks that marked the highest-level contact between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the Syrian Civil War. FM Sergey Lavrov said that he hoped the meeting would pave the way for a roadmap for normalizing Turkish-Syrian relations. Russia has for months made efforts to help Syrian President Bashar Assad rebuild fractured ties with Turkey and others in the region following the 12-year civil war that has killed nearly 500,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million.