Ankara says Turkey, Russia patrols begin around Idlib

Turkish and Russian patrols will begin in Syria’s northwestern Idlib region on Friday as part of a deal agreed last year, Turkey’s defense minister said.

The jihadist-controlled Idlib province has been protected from a major offensive by the Syrian regime following the September agreement between Damascus ally Russia and rebel supporter Turkey, which included setting up a demilitarized zone around the region.

“Today Russian patrols will start outside of Idlib in the border region (and) Turkish armed forces’ patrols will begin in the demilitarized zone,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.

“There were restrictions on the use of Idlib and Afrin regions’ airspace but these have been lifted from today,” Akar told state news agency Anadolu in an interview.

Idlib is the last major region held by rebels in Syria and is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

HTS took administrative control of the whole of the Idlib region in January.

Despite being on opposing sides of the conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have been working closely in a bid to end the war.

An AFP correspondent on Friday morning saw a column of around 10 armored vehicles on a road in the zone in the western countryside of the Aleppo province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor that relies on sources inside Syria, said Turkish troops were preparing to carry out patrols in the area concerned by the Russian-Turkish agreement.

“Turkish forces in Syria at observation points spread out in the areas of Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and the slopes of the Latakia mountains are preparing to conduct patrols in the areas of implementation of the Putin-Erdogan agreement,” the monitor said.

More than 160 civilians including 60 children have been killed in air strikes and shelling by regime forces since the buffer zone agreement was implemented, the Observatory says.

In that same time, 94 rebels and jihadists have also lost their lives, as have 125 regime fighters, it says.

-Endgame-

With Russia and Iran’s backing, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has managed to regain control with most of the war-torn country.

The decision by the United States to withdraw all of its troops from Syria further improved Assad’s position, since Washington has backed rebels and Kurds since the war started.

Although US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of all 2,000 troops in December last year, the decision it yet to be implemented.

The Syrian Kurds have been particularly worried about US troops leaving Syria, fearing Turkish troops would launch an offensive against the areas they control.

The realization that Assad is staying in power for the time being has caused Arab states to signal a willingness to restore diplomatic ties.

The United Arab Emirates, which broke ties with Assad following the outbreak of the war, reopened its embassy in Damascus in December.

After the UAE’s announcement, Bahrain signaled its intention to reopen its embassy in Damascus, which has been closed since March 2012.

The Gulf state’s foreign ministry said it was “anxious to continue relations” with Syria and wants “to strengthen the Arab role and reactivate it in order to preserve the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and prevent the risk of regional interference in its affairs”.

Another symbolic event was Assad’s visit to Tehran last month, marking his first visit to the Islamic Republic since the star of the Syrian war.

Efforts by United Nations to end the war in Syria have been overshadowed by separate negotiations led Russia and Iran, and Turkey.

But in a meeting in Damascus last month between the new UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, and Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, the two diplomats appeared to agree on finding a solution to the war together.

Muallem expressed Syria’s “readiness to cooperate with him… in his mission to facilitate Syrian-Syrian dialogue with the objective of reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis,” a foreign ministry statement said following their meeting.

Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since the war started with the repression of anti-government protests in 2011.