Putin, Erdogan to discuss Syria amid Russia-Turkey discord over Idlib

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday opening talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that he wants to discuss problems of the Syrian settlement and try to find solutions to them.

Turkey’s diplomatic win: The creation of a demilitarized zone around Idlib marked a significant U-turn by Putin, who just last week during talks in Iran dismissed Erdogan’s calls for a ceasefire.

“Control in the demilitarized zone will be exercised by mobile patrol groups of Turkish units and units of Russia’s military police”, Putin stated.

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“The situation with Idlib is acute”, President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday, state media reported.

Senior Advisor to UN Special Envoy for Syria Jan Egeland on Monday urged the Syrian government and armed opposition to respect the deal and not provoke bloodshed and allow humanitarian access.

The agreement comes amid fears of an all-out offensive by the Syrian regime and its allies on Idlib – the last major rebel stronghold in Syria’s 7-year-old war. Despite coming under nearly non-stop bombardment for several years, the area is still home to some 3 million Syrians, around 60,000 of whom are believed to be rebel fighters.

And by the end of the year transportation routes between Latakia and Aleppo, and Latakia and Hama must be restored, he said.

He later said that the terror-labeled groups should turn in their weapons, and this specific detail seemed like another opportunity taken by Turkey to try to do something ahead of the anticipated military operation in Idlib, which is fully backed and supported by Iran and Russian Federation, both are the key allies of the Syrian government.

Its military and defense chiefs visited border areas on Friday to inspect troop reinforcements sent to its Hatay and Gaziantep provinces.

Russian Federation has called Idlib a hotbed of terrorism and had said the Syrian government has the right to retake control of it. Turkey appealed to Russian Federation and Iran, its uneasy negotiating partners, for a diplomatic resolution.

“In the mind of the rebellion, the hope is that from Turkish support they can have. a republic of northern Syria, protected by Turkey like Northern Cyprus”, said Fabrice Balanche, a Syria watcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But we are still not satisfied”, he said.

There are other Islamists and groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner.

Idlib is held by an array of rebels.

Wissam Zarqa, a university teacher in Idlib, said demonstrators were flying the tri-color flag to rebut the regime line that Idlib is dominated by the al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group.

“Assad and Russian Federation gave the choice to the worldwide community: first we kill everybody”.

Idlib is strategically important for both Russian Federation and Turkey.

Rebels and anti-Assad civilian activists have poured into the region under surrender agreements that have granted them safe passage out of former insurgent areas.