Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
The Turkish military has built a helicopter landing zone in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib, Syrian pro-opposition news sources reported on January 15.
The landing zone was built right next to a Turkish base located in the outskirts of the town of Baluon in the southern Idlib countryside. The zone was likely built to facilitate rapid deployment of troops, visits by high-ranking officers or medical evacuation.
Baluon base is one of around 60 positions the Turkish military established across Greater Idlib, which is ruled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, over the last three years. These positions were supposedly established to monitor a ceasefire that was brokered with help from Russia. However, their real purpose is to prevent Syrian government forces from resuming ground operations in the region.
The new Turkish military move in Greater Idlib came amid ongoing Russia efforts to restore ties between Ankara and Damascus.
In December, a breakthrough meeting between the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of Turkey and Syria was held in Moscow. However, a more important meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries is still pending.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during a meeting with Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev in the Damascus earlier this week that future talks with Ankara should aim for “the end of occupation” by Turkey of parts of Syria.
According to Syrian pro-government news sources, Damascus wants the Turkish military to withdraw from Greater Idlib, at least to behind the strategic M4 highway, as a first step. Ankara is yet to agree to this.
The situation in Greater Idlib remains of especial importance to the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement process, especially with militants there intensifying their attacks on government forces.
1979.11.20 Grand Mosque Seizure 313 Ikhwan
Those Idlib militants like HTS or even the more moderate Ahrar al Sham are funded by Qatar. Qatar hasn’t normalized yet.
Turkiye builds a military train from Idlib straight to Jerusalem.