Russia, Turkey agree to ceasefire for Syria's Idlib

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands after a joint news conference followed six-hour talks in the Kremlin in Moscow. Picture: Presidential Press Service via AP

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands after a joint news conference followed six-hour talks in the Kremlin in Moscow. Picture: Presidential Press Service via AP

Published Mar 5, 2020

Share

Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish

counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to a ceasefire

for Syria's north-western Idlib region, to take effect at midnight.

The sides have also agreed to observe a security corridor through a

major highway in Idlib, Syria's last rebel stronghold, near the

Turkish border. The agreement was announced after about six hours of

talks between the Russian and Turkish leaders in Moscow.

"We will first impose a ceasefire as soon as possible, then will

swiftly take other steps that we agree on," Erdogan told reporters.

He cautioned that Turkey would retaliate to any attack by Syrian

state forces.

The meeting took place amid growing concerns about an emerging proxy

war between Turkey, which supports certain rebel groups in Syria's

multi-sided civil war, and Russia, the main military backer of the

Syrian state.

Turkey has suffered dozens of casualties after sending troops into

the north-western Idlib region in recent weeks, to counter advances

made by Syrian state forces into rebel-held areas.

According to Putin, however, the Syrian military did not know it was

fighting Turkish troops, because their location had not been shared.

"No one, including Syrian forces, knew about their location," Putin

told Erdogan at the meeting during their public opening remarks. The

Syrian military also suffered "serious losses," the Russian president

noted.

However, shortly after an attack last week in which more than 30

Turkish soldiers were killed, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar

had charged that the onslaught continued although the troops'

location had been shared with Russia. Ambulances were also hit, he

said.

A previous ceasefire deal for Idlib quickly fell apart. Turkey and

Russia have been accusing each other of failing to adhere to that

agreement.

"The [Syrian] regime, which threatens the stability of the region

with its aggression, is the primary responsible for breaking the

Idlib agreement," Erdogan, standing alongside Putin, told a press

conference.

Erdogan accused the Syrian military of having directly targeted

civilians. He said an estimated 1.5 million people from the Idlib

region had moved towards Turkey's borders.

Turkey has deployed troops to Idlib to "maintain stability as part of

a deal with Russia," Erdogan said.

Thursday's agreement called for a cessation of "all military actions

along the line of contact in the Idlib de-escalation area" and a

security corridor to be established six kilometres deep to the north

and south of the M4 highway.

Turkey and Russia were also to conduct joint patrols along the M4

highway from the settlement of Trumba to the settlement of

Ain-al-Havr, the agreement said.

Erdogan was accompanied in Moscow by a large delegation, including

his defence, finance and foreign ministers.

During the meeting, Erdogan referred to the strong economic

relationship between Turkey and Russia, while Putin expressed a hope

that the situation in Syria would not damage their relations.

Previously robust ties between Turkey and Russia were frayed five

years ago when Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane on the

Syrian border. Relations began to recover about half a year later.

Germany, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum

seekers, announced that it would provide the United Nations with an

additional 100 million euros (110 million dollars) in aid for people

in need in Idlib.

"The scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib is dramatic,"

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said ahead of a meeting with his

EU counterparts in Zagreb on Thursday.

Maas linked the money to clear preconditions: "Humanitarian access

and the protection of aid workers and the population must be

guaranteed."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has backed a call for a no-fly

zone in Idlib. However, the issue is foremost a question for NATO or

the United Nations, rather than the European Union, Borrell noted.

An independent monitoring group said that the previous night Russian

airstrikes hit a refugee camp in Idlib.

The attack, on the town of Maaret Misreen, killed at least 15

civilians and wounded more than a dozen others, the Syrian

Observatory for Human Rights said.

The escalating violence in Idlib has stoked concerns among some EU

member states of another wave of refugees from war-torn Syria, after

the bloc struggled to contain a surge in arrivals in 2015-16.

dpa

Related Topics:

vladimir putin