The interview came amid reports that Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was murdered by a gunman while visiting an art gallery in Ankara, in what the Russian Foreign Ministry has described as a terrorist attack.
During a phone conversation on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan briefed Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the details of the shooting of Andrey Karlov.
In a separate telephone conversation late last week, the two presidents discussed the situation in Syria, focusing on the issues related to the peaceful evacuation of the last Islamist militant-held enclave within the city of Aleppo.
The two leaders also discussed using Astana, Kazakhstan as a venue for hosting peace talks between Syria's government and the opposition.
Putin and Erdogan noted the high level of Russia-Turkey interaction in promoting the Syrian settlement and agreed to continue maintaining close contact on this issue.
Commenting on the matter, Oktay Aksoy remained optimistic about the upcoming results of the Astana talks.
"Europe, which has been hit hard by the Syrian crisis, does not always make reasonable decisions. Perhaps holding the intra-Syrian talks in Astana, far away from migration crisis-hit Europe, could yield positive results. Let's wait and see," he said.
In this vein, it is safe to assume that the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will "certainly be useful" in terms of resolving the Syrian crisis, according to Aksoy.
"It is previous talks between these two leaders which added significantly to solving the Syrian deadlock. The ceasefire in Aleppo became possible as a result of the highest level contact between Russia and Turkey. So there is every reason to believe that the Astana talks will also be held in a constructive atmosphere and that relevant decisions will be made to finally settle the situation," he said.
The assassination of Andrey Karlov took place just one day before leaders from Russia, Iran, and Turkey were scheduled to convene for a meeting in Moscow. The countries' foreign officials and defense ministers planned to discuss the situation in Aleppo and the future of Syria.
Relations between Moscow and Turkey became strained after a Russian warplane was gunned down by Turkish military forces in November 2015, but tensions eased after President Erdogan apologized to President Putin in June 2016.
Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
