MOSCOW – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has written to his Turkishcounterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of the New Year, laudingnormalization of bilateral ties over the past year.

Putin wrote the letter Saturday, stressing that the two sides had not onlysucceeded in putting their bilateral ties back on track over the past year,but also achieved significant progress in boosting cooperation in manyareas, Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported.

The relations hit their lowest ebb on November 24, 2015, when a Turkishwarplane shot down a Russian one near the Syria–Turkey border. The pilotlost his life in the crash, while Syrian government forces rescued theRussian navigator, who had been on board.

In June 2016, however, Turkey and Russia put an end to seven months ofstrained relations after Erdogan “apologized” in a letter to Putin overthe downing of the Sukhoi Su-24. Since then, the two leaders have met oneight occasions.

Putin’s Saturday message said that “by working closely together ourcountries have succeeded in preventing the terrorist threat from spreadingfurther across the Middle East and created conditions for launching thepolitical settlement of the Syrian conflict.”

Alongside Iran, the two countries have been working towards resolving thecrisis in Syria.