Turkey\u2019s president announced on Saturday the country has launched a \u201cserious\u201d operation in Syria\u2019s northwestern Idlib province with Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, following international efforts for de-escalation in the war-torn country. The operation has been highly expected in the province, where al-Qaida-linked fighters enjoy wide influence, after last month\u2019s talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana during which Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed on setting up \u201ca de-escalation zone\u201d in the province.<\/p>\n
Turkey is a strong backer of Syrian opposition fighters while Iran and Russia back President Bashar Assad. Moscow joined the war two years ago siding with Assad while Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters tipping the balance of power in the president\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Turkey where he discussed the situation in Syria with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and earlier this week the Turkish leader went to Tehran. Erdogan said the operation was a \u201cnew step\u201d to establish security in Idlib, promising Turkey would not desert civilians there.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, there is a serious operation in Idlib and it will continue,\u201d he said at his political party\u2019s conference in Afyonkarahisar province in western Turkey. Responding to journalists\u2019 questions after the televised speech, Erdogan said: \u201cThe Free Syrian Army is leading an operation in Idlib right now,\u201d referring to moderate rebel groups in Syria. He added that the Turkish military was not yet in the province.<\/p>\n
Turkey-backed Syrian forces are fighting the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, formerly known as Nusra Front. In the past weeks, the Turkish military has been dispatching tanks and armored vehicles to the border with Idlib.<\/p>\n
A Syrian rebel commander speaking from Turkey said no military operations are ongoing at the moment but said preparations were underway for Turkish troops and FSA fighters to enter Idlib. \u201cThe aim of the operation is to implement the Astana agreement by setting up Turkish observation posts similar to those of Russia,\u201d Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush said in an exchange of text messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis cannot be achieved without confronting the Nusra Front,\u201d he said. \u201cThe aim is to finish Nusra Front.\u201d Erdogan told journalists that Turkey would provide security inside Idlib and Russia on the periphery. Last month, a negotiated \u201cde-escalation zone\u201d in the mostly rebel-held province of Idlib was announced during talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Iran, Turkey and Russia reached the deal for four de-escalation zones earlier this year as part of their efforts to negotiate an end to the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s official Anadolu news agency reported that the Turkish \u201cdeployment\u201d would be to reach de-escalation goals rather than engage in clashes with local militia or the Syrian army. The Turkish president warned the country would not permit a \u201cterror corridor\u201d along its border, referring to extremists groups as well as U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey\u2019s president announced on Saturday the country has launched a \u201cserious\u201d operation in Syria\u2019s northwestern Idlib province with Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, following international efforts for de-escalation in the war-torn country. The operation has been highly expected in the province, where al-Qaida-linked fighters enjoy wide influence, after last month\u2019s talks in the Kazakh capital of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7108,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106\/revisions\/7108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}