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The Turkish Army will be deployed tonight to the Syrian province of Idlib (controlled by various anti-government militant factions) in roder to enforce the de-escalation zones agreed during the peace talks in Astana, the Rudaw media outlet reported citing an opposition source.
BREAKING: Opposition source tells Rudaw reporter that Turkish army will be deployed tonight to Syria’s Idlib to enforce de-escalation zones pic.twitter.com/NoefSW1RUK
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) May 6, 2017
The report followed speculations on the same issue appeared in social media.
The de-escalation zones agreement came into force on May 5, According to it, military activities and aircraft flights in the safe zones (the province of Idlib is one of the zones) were banned starting from May 6.
Rudaw is a Kurdish media group based in Erbil, Iraq. It’s known for supporting President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani. At the same time, Barzani has strong ties with the Turkish leadership, including President Recep Erdoğan. Thus, in many cases, Rudaw provides a pro-Turkish look at the events in Syria and Iraq.
Russians sold the Syrian land. Assad is a puppet.
Absolutely!
Let’s not be too hasty, remember, it could be fake news.
Or just a reminder that Erdogan will use any excuse to send forces into Syria. This time he can claim it’s to protect Syrian Turkmen.
Not quite, it is to ‘protect’ TurkStream. No pipeline in Syria for quite a while.
Yes, looks like Russia sold Assad. Syria will be divided the same way as Berlin was divided. Next step will be to legalize and for that Assad will not be needed
Turkey is building a wall, and should stay BEHIND it. If they moved into Idlib province, it would be to support Al Qaeda ? I don’t think Erdogan would want the bad publicity.
The Syrian president is NOT a puppet.
A very bad idea. It will be very hard to get them out.
The rebels (HTS) who are backed by Saudi Arabia and other gulf states will not be happy about this so we can expect more infighting and possibly some attacks on the Turkish army by some rebel groups.
Maybe that is what Syria and Russia are planning. Let’s focus on ISIS and let Turkey fight against the Kurds.
Turks wont fight the Kurds because of USA backing them (and to some degree Russia) they will just keep shelling them as to say to their supporters that they’re still fighting the pkk “terrorists” regardless of what USA says/does
Those de-escalation zones are a proof that Syria cannot win this war and is under foreign occupation. I think that Russia and Syria will focus on Deir Ezzor for a while because keeping Syria connected to Iraq and Iran is more important now than Idlib.
I can understand your point of view. But it is a mistake to allow the entry of a foreign army, especially if it is a hostile neighbor.
Exactly 100 years ago the Sultans Caliphate occupied all Arabia including Medina, Al-Quds, Amman, Beyrouth and Damascus. Ottoman Turkey was driven out by force, not negotiation. In recent times Turkey have invaded and occupied northern Cyprus (1974 !) still there with 25-30 000 troops, northern Halab (Aleppo) and north of Mosul . Let us be clear sighted and face reality : Turkey will never, ever, withdraw from northern Syria. The foreign aggressors alliance of US/GB/FR/Saudi/Qatar/TU and Israel remains united and have never deviated from their long-term plan of permanent war on Syria and the breaking up/cantonization of the state into various protectorates, as is now happening. To imagine that any country would seriously militarily confront Turkey in defense of Syrian (or Iraqi) territorial integrity is fantasy – the Turks follow the proven Israeli strategy – create facts on the ground (invade & occupy e.g. Golan) then dare anyone to react,(no-one does) so working very well so far. The only puzzle so far is why the Turks have not crossed the Sajur riverline just 11 km north of Manbij,maybe they are content to keep shelling with impunity and leave it to the US to establish their own seperatist Kurdish statelet.
The Turks will go home – by force. Defeated as once before.
I liked your realistic approach to the situation in Syria and Iraq. But I disagree with you that the US / GB / FR / Saudi / Qatar / TU and Israel are united. Each has its own interests, that sometimes contradict those of the others (like their attitude toward the Kurds). Just as the interests of Russia and Iran are not identical and sometimes opposite (like their attitude toward Israel) . All this complicates the situation in Syria and intensifies the suffering of the poor Syrian people. I share the view that Syria will not return to be one unified state.
Great more land grabs.
So far Turkey has denied this report. The de-escalation zones agreement is a good idea. It will allow SAA and air power to concentrate on ISUS to the east. To relieve Deir Ezzor in the not to distant future. Hopefully the Jihadist do not have that much offensive power left to upset this plan. TIME TO HIT ISUS HARD FOR THE KNOCKOUT.
It is a good idea if all the “rebels” and extremists agree to it. That will give the SAA additional time to train new recruits and provide additional training to those with limited combat experience. That additional education may be “on the job” training eliminating ISIS pockets and the die-hards given the task of performing rear guard delaying actions at the villages along the way south.
HTS has been excluded from this agreement, not a full ceasefire at all. Hopefully the Idlib Jihadist can not cause major problems after their heavy loses in North Hama. The idea is to separate the wheat from the chaff I think. New maps will be drawn up in the following weeks to better define the “ceasefire” zones.
this is reasonable. But there could be the possibility that if the turks enter Idlib, they may stay there to protect their ragheads friends, when ISIS has been kicked out. Sooner or later Idlib will have to be reclaimed by the government. If ISIS is ousted from Syria, and then Erdogan starts up the “Assad must go” rethoric again, the war will have to go on. I’m pretty convinced that Turkey does not care very much about peace in Syria, as a matter of fact, there would never had been any war if Turkey did not create the conditions for it and then invest millions in the rebels. It would be naive thinking that they’ll just drop the whole matter and accept the ante-bello status.
Well, when Turkey get in they will not get out. This is given. Assad should be ready for division of his country
It already is divided.. Federalization as first proposed and a new Constitution that will have presidential term limits.
The Syrian government will decide about these new types and so far they declined them all. It is their choice.
The crux of the matter is that the Syrian army lacks the manpower to reclaim this territory which at this point is deeply hostile to the Assad regime. Since virtually all the jihadists have left other resistance pockets and took refuge in Idlib province, it would be exceedingly difficult for the Syrian army to go against the which have very strong local support at this point. The sad part is that this region appears to be one of the most fertile in Syria. Its loss deprives the secular regime of a prolific food supply source. The rest of Syria is either mountainous in the west or barren desert in the west, can’t grow much food on them.
Not really, since the combatants have been allowing the sale and transfer of agricultural products from one region to another so people can eat, make some income plus those in charge pick-up needed cash by charging tolls for safe passage.
If al-Assad and the Syrian gov., along with Iran and Russia aprove of the action, only then can Turkey step into Idlib.
But knowing Turkey, they don’t listen to rules, just look at operation Euhprates Shield.
Good. More infight for rebels. SAA can focus on ISIS
The Turks and their TOW missile magnets.. and I wonder how many times the Russian special forces will have to bail them out. It’s ‘training in real action’ time.
Probably the boast is just testing the waters, you got to remember Russia is really twins, what we have here is the Orthodox Christians that despise Muslims and consequently support israel and the Kurds who worship the US, not really the Brazani Kurds who are too close to the Turkmen and Erdogan but they would support this Erdogan, Brazani initiative thinking it would weaken the Turkmen and strengthen the Kurds, like the Brazani Erdogan team does in Iraq, but these Orthodox traitors are not always successful, their le-Pen rhetoric could bring them undone in Russia itself, the victory over Nazi appeasement is building a second wind, le-Pen stands for only one practical thing, revision of Soviet History.
Let the partitioning of Syria begin! Turkey has been trying to wheedle a way in for over a year. Now thanks to Russia they have. Nice work guys.