Turkish, Russian foreign ministers speak over phone

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Saturday talked to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the phone, according to a Turkish diplomatic source.

The phone call came ahead of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which is set to be held on Jan. 29-30 in the Russian coastal city of Sochi, where the representatives of the guarantor countries Russia, Iran and Turkey will also be present.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.