Syria War - Erdogan seeks Putin to help contain Idlib violence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to halt the Syrian regime´s violence in Idlib as efforts intensified to avoid more bloodshed in the final rebel holdout.br br Erdogan also held a three-way call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which he called for "concrete actions to prevent a humanitarian crisis".br br With Ankara threatening an "imminent" operation against the Syrian regime, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar inspected troops gathered at the Syrian border on Friday.