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Turkey won’t abandon observation points in Syria

A Turkish soldier is pictured at a position near the village of al-Nayrab, about 14 kilometers southeast of the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on February 20, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Rahshan Saglam
Press TV, Istanbul

Turkey said that it will not leave observation points in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province despite recent events asserting that it will target any entity that threatens Turkish soldiers and positions there.

Speaking at a UN Security Council session, Turkey’s envoy to the UN Feridun Sinirlioglu denounced the Syrian army attacks on Turkish soldiers and stressed that the attacks will be met with similar actions from now on.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the military operation in Idlib is a matter of time. Erdogan also warned that Ankara will push the Syrian army and stop it from making advances.

Turkey says its forces in Idlib are mandated to stabilize the situation and preserve de-escalation, assuring that Ankara’s military presence is in line with the Sochi memorandum, based on which, Turkey is a guarantor of a ceasefire in Idlib. This is while Russia accuses Turkey of breaching the 2018 ceasefire agreement.

Turkey seems serious about its upcoming operation, as reinforcements are being dispatched to the border area adjacent to Idlib. Ankara has 12 observation posts in the region, set up as part of the Iranian-brokered agreement with Russia to de-escalate tensions near the Turkish border. Some of the posts, however, now lie in the territory recaptured from militants in joint Russian-Syrian operations.


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