UN fears for hundreds of thousands if Syria troops encircle Aleppo

Moscow turned the momentum in the war in favor of its ally President Bashar al-Assad when it joined the conflict four months ago with a campaign of air strikes against his enemies, many of whom are supported by Arab states, Turkey and the West.

As tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence massed at Turkey’s border, Turkish and German leaders pledged Monday to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the fighting around the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and prevent more refugees making their way into Europe. “We took in 10,000 of these migrants and we are building some camps at the other side of the border for some”, Cavusoglu said during a visit to Budapest.

“As a outcome of this situation, we are seeing 200,000 people being forced to flee – 65,000 in the direction of Turkey and 135,000 inside Syria”, Mr Kurtulmus said. The Norwegian Refugee Council said that aid groups are working around the clock to deliver help and first necessity items to the refugees, as reported by New York Times. The UN urged Turkey to open its borders as the emergency camps recently set up for tens of thousands of displaced people across the border in Syria have been overwhelmed according to aid organisations.

“The solution to the refugee crisis is via the return of security to Syria, and I am confident that the majority of Syrians dream of returning to their country”, she said.

The fate of the strategically important air base at Menagh nearby remains unclear.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Hungarian counterpart during a visit to Budapest, Çavuşoğlu said the current flood of refugees to Turkey could reach 1 million people if the Russian and Syrian military campaign against the opposition continues.

Map of northwestern Syria showing civilian exodus and advances by regime forces and Kurds.

The siege of Aleppo has taken the West even further from achieving its key goals in Syria of stemming the refugee flow, removing the Assad regime and tackling IS, experts say.

“ISIL involvement in homeland attack activity will probably continue to involve those who draw inspiration from the group’s highly sophisticated media without direct guidance from ISIL leadership”, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said using an acronym for the militant group. “It would be easy to do”.

“As for President Erdogan’s statements that Russian Federation has occupied part of Syria, they [statements] are wrong and absurd from a judicial standpoint and from the point of view of worldwide law”, he told reporters on February 9. Islamic State claimed responsibility. Ankara considers the PYD and YPG to be part of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish separatist movement.

Ranged on the government side are the overstretched and undermanned Syrian armed forces, national defence units, the ruling Baath party militia, Lebanon’s Shia Hizbullah, Syrian Shia Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas brigade, Iraqi Shia Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Iraqi Shia Kata’ib Hizbullah, Iranian-formed Iraqi Badr Organisation (among the most powerful of the country’s militias), and Iraqi Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. They might then be attacked. “This is an unmitigated disaster, a huge mess that was all too predictable”.