Putin, Erdogan Agree to Idlib Cease-Fire After Hours of Syria Talks
The new agreement is the latest in more than two years of efforts to contain the conflict in the region.
(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced another cease-fire in the deepening crisis in Syria’s Idlib province, hoping to patch up increasingly frayed ties between their two countries.
“Work will be speedily carried out to make the cease-fire permanent” after it takes effect at midnight Thursday, Erdogan told reporters after six hours of talks in the Kremlin.
The new agreement is the latest in more than two years of efforts to contain the conflict in the region, and it wasn’t clear if it would last longer than previous failed attempts. Putin said at the start of the talks that Russia and Turkey shouldn’t destroy their relationship over Idlib.
“We don’t always agree with our Turkish partners on our view of what’s happening in Syria,” Putin said at a joint briefing after the negotiations. “But every time at critical moments, thanks to the high level of our bilateral ties, we have found common ground on areas of dispute and managed to reach acceptable solutions. This happened this time.”
The two sides have sought to avert a rupture in their uneasy partnership in Syria, following a Turkish military blitz in Idlib in retaliation for the worst losses of its Syrian campaign. The deal appeared to fall short of Erdogan’s desire to establish a new zone of control in the province to resettle millions of refugees, though it called for efforts to help residents return home.
It also allowed the Syrian government to retain control of some ground it has retaken in recent weeks. But the pact didn’t include a pledge to restore Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s control over the entire country, limiting itself to a vague commitment to Syria’s sovereignty.
Both Russia and Turkey have been careful to avoid direct conflict even as the violence has spiked in recent days. While Russia formally controls the skies above Syria, Turkey unleashed a barrage from killer drones against Assad’s army after an airstrike killed 33 Turkish soldiers in a single day on Feb. 27.
The new agreement “is a relative success” and it was difficult to achieve more, said Elena Suponina, a Moscow-based Middle East analyst. While cease-fire violations can’t be ruled out, “politically, everything has been done to avoid that,” she said.
Tensions were not far below the surface Thursday as each side blamed the other’s allies for the latest escalation in fighting. Erdogan warned that “Turkey will retain the right to respond to all attacks by regime forces,” even as said it would continue to seek “close coordination” with Russia’s military.
The new accord is a supplement to a deal Putin and Erdogan first agreed in 2018. That pact quickly fell apart and repeated efforts by the leaders to enforce a cease-fire since then haven’t yielded lasting results.
Security Corridor
The agreement calls for the creation of a 12-kilometer-wide security corridor along the strategic M4 highway running south of Idlib, to be policed by joint Russian-Turkish patrols from March 15. It stressed the need to allow for the return of refugees as well as access for humanitarian aid, and both sides reaffirmed their commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity.
Assad’s forces have been fighting for control of the M5 highway between the capital Damascus and Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city, and the M4 highway that links
Aleppo with the port city of Latakia.
Watching nervously on the sidelines are European Union leaders alarmed by Erdogan’s threat to allow millions of refugees to cross its border, unleashing a new migrant crisis for the bloc that’s already reeling from populist pressures over the issue. Putin discussed the Idlib situation by phone with European Council President Charles Michel, who spoke “about the measures being taken to prevent illegal migration to EU countries,” according to a Kremlin statement Thursday.
Idlib is the last stronghold of rebel forces in Syria who are backed by Turkey, which fears a new wave of refugees fleeing toward its border if Assad’s military takes control. In recent weeks, Syrian forces backed by Russian aircraft have stepped up attempts to retake the city and surrounding region.
--With assistance from Firat Kozok, Ugur Yilmaz and Selcan Hacaoglu.
To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin
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