Erdogan, Putin agree face-to-face meeting next month

ANKARA (AA) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arranged to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin within weeks, Turkish presidential sources said Sunday.

The agreement came in a telephone call from Putin in which he gave his support to Turkey following Friday’s attempted coup.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Russian president said he stood by Turkey’s elected government and offered his condolences to the victims of the failed coup.

The leaders will meet in the first week of August, the source added. The meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting between Erdogan and Putin since the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian jet over the Turkey-Syria border last November.

The incident led to a suspension of relations between the two countries until it was resolved in a letter and subsequent telephone call between the leaders late last month.