Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, (r), Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, (c), and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani pose for the media members in Sochi, Russia, November 22. 2017. (Kayhan Ozer/Pool via AP)
On February 14 in the Russian city of Sochi, the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran held a meeting on the situation in Syria. The formation of the constitutional committee, the situation in the governorate of Idlib and the withdrawal of U.S. forces were the key discussed topics.
“Today we held the fourth summit. Such close coordination allows us to effectively carry out work aimed at achieving long-term normalization in the Syrian Arab Republic … Jointly with the partners, we identified key areas for further cooperation in resolving the Syrian crisis. The agreements reached on this issue were reflected in the final joint statement,” Russia’s President Putin said during a press conference following the meeting, according to Sputnik.
Regarding the situation in the governorate of Idlib, Putin reaffirmed that the demilitarized zone agreement is a temporary measure and vowed that the militants there would not go unpunished.
The Russian President also said that Russia, Iran and Turkey will assist the launch of the constitutional committee in Syria. He also confirmed that a progress has been made on this issue and stressed that the political process will facilitate the normalization between Syria and other Arab countries.
“We agreed to promote by joint efforts the soonest possible launch of the constitutional committee, which is designed to address the fundamental aspects of the future state structure of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Putin said.
From his side, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that his country will not tolerate the emergence of a terrorist corridor on the Syrian-Turkish border following the upcoming withdrawal of U.S. forces. The Turkish President’s remarks were clearly aimed against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
“Turkey will in no way allow the formation of a terrorist corridor on its southern borders. In this regard, we expect support from our Astana partners,” Erdogan said.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also criticized the U.S. intervention in the Middle East, especially Syria, and said that it was not useful.
“America should reconsider its Middle East policy,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the Iranian leader as saying during the press conference.
While the three countries appear to be on the same side when it comes to opposing the U.S. intervention in Syria, major differences are very clear when it comes to other issues, especially the situation in Idlib.
According to the final statement of the Sochi summit, Putin, Erdogan and Rouhani will hold more talks on situation in Syria next April. U.S. forces should be withdrawing from the war-torn country by then.
Will Erdogan still be in power april 2019, heard about a coup Gulen, made by honest AKP dissidents?
Logic dictates that if YOU heard about a potential coup, so does Erdogan. And after the last time he’s not going to sit back and let it happen.
Besides, the Turkish army has been pretty much gutted of anyone even remotely capable of independent thoughts.
the failed coup a couple of years ago was most certainly masterminded by the morons in moronistan (aka usa) who preferred gulen, as more malleable, to erdogan. after that and with developments not exactly proceeding the way the morons would like them to proceed, a new coup could be in the offing but so very much more difficult to do. and the morons really can’t afford to be caught with the pants by the ankles again so they will have to be ultra careful. but erdogan is in the way and the morons would like to see him kicked into orbit.
You just have to cut the head off the snake, two ore three men are sufficient. Why do you think his palace guard are not allowed to have live ammo ? Because he is afraid to be taken down.
nah turkey won’t break away and try to gain some imaginary benefit – nothing much in the syrian borderland is worth a serious risk. much better to make certain that the kurds remain tenants along the border and that the landlords remain the usual ,4, turkey, syria, iraq and iran.
the morons of moronistan (aka usa) have more or less forgotten all about the gullible kurds and is now working away on the other side of the world, with another useful idiot, guiado of venezuela, although that particular event seems to be folding into an non retrievable mess around the more than inept morons so it’s time for the world to emit a healthy larf that can be heard all the way to washington dc, capital of moronistan and which is peopled with fully fledged idiots.
Unless Putin stops coddling Erdogan and aligns with Syrian and Iranian plans for an offense to rid of Idlib terrorists these merry go round talks will get nowhere and Turkeys will get more entrenched in Northern Syria. It is time to blast the headchoppers to hell.