Russia and Turkey agree to ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to a ceasefire in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib.
Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks with Moscow-backed regime forces.
The ceasefire, which the two leaders agreed following almost six hours of talks in Moscow on Thursday, takes effect from midnight.
“All military activities will be halted in the Idlib de-confliction zone, starting from March 6, 2020 at 00:01,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusolgu told a press conference in Moscow on Thursday.
Joint Turkish and Russian patrols will begin on Syria's strategic M4 highway on March 15, Cavusolgu said.
“A safe corridor will be established 6km north and 6km south of M4 highway. The principles will be determined within seven days,” he added.
Putin told Erdogan ahead of the talks that the recent upsurge in violence in Idlib should not be allowed to harm Ankara-Moscow relations.
“We always have something to talk about, but now the situation in the Idlib zone has escalated so much that this requires our face-to-face conversation,” Putin said, during a joint press conference with Erdogan earlier on Thursday.
“We must definitely discuss everything, the entire situation we have today, so that similar things… never happen again and so that… it [Idlib] does not destroy the Russian-Turkish relations, which we – and I know that you do too – treat carefully and prize highly,” he added, according to TASS.
The relationship came under strain in recent weeks when Moscow-backed Syrian regime forces and Turkish troops clashed in Idlib, leading to fears of war between Russia and Turkey.
Turkish troops operate 12 observation posts in Idlib under the terms of the 2018 Sochi de-confliction deal.
Moscow and Ankara have traded barbs in recent months, each blaming the other for failing to adhere to the Sochi deal.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allied groups – backed by Russian air force – launched an offensive against former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and their allied rebel groups in Idlib and neighboring Aleppo in December, retaking areas held by the opposition since 2011.
Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Erdogan had hoped Putin would order Syrian regime forces to withdraw to the 2018 de-confliction lines.
“The steps we will take and the felicitous decisions we will make will relieve the region and our countries. We are living in an era during which the bilateral relations between Turkey and Russia have peaked,” Erdogan told the press conference.
“We plan to further advance these relations. It is our greatest aim to strengthen them. I believe we will achieve that,” he added.
Ankara launched Operation Spring Shield last Thursday after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in regime strikes.
Turkish forces launched direct attacks on President Bashar al-Assad’s troops in Idlib and Aleppo, killing dozens including senior commanders.
On Thursday, Putin expressed his “condolences over the deaths of your military servicemen in Syria.”
Ankara has also deployed thousands of tanks, howitzers, and other military equipment as well as thousands of soldiers to Idlib.
Turkey’s relations with the Syrian regime have been thorny since the start of Syrian uprising in 2011, when Ankara criticized Assad’s killing of civilians and began backing the armed opposition.
In an interview with Rossiya-24, aired on Thursday, Assad said the Turkish and Syrian people have important cross-cultural bonds.
“We talk about Turks as our brotherly people… I am asking the Turkish people: what is your problem with Syria? What is the problem over which Turkish citizens need to die?” he said, according to RT.
Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, urged Turkish and Russian leaders on Wednesday to “find an immediate diplomatic solution that could spare civilians further suffering, ensure some stability, promote cooperation rather than confrontation on the challenges in Idlib, and create more conducive conditions for a political process.”
The recent clashes have displaced nearly a million Syrians to the Turkish border.
Last updated 9.30 PM