REVIEW - World Community Calls For Calm Amid Idlib Escalation Dubbed 'Treacherous Attack' By Ankara

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th February, 2020) Over 30 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria's Idlib on Thursday night due to an airstrike by Syrian government forces in what Ankara called a "treacherous attack," triggering a dramatic spike of tensions in the de-escalation zone and prompting the world community to strongly call for calm and a return to the negotiation table.

In December, Syrian government forces launched an offensive to recapture areas of the Idlib province, the last remaining militant stronghold in the country. Pockets of the area are controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia).

Earlier in the month, fighting in the region escalated further, with Turkish and Syrian troops conducting several tit-for-tat attacks. On February 3, the Turkish Defense Ministry accused Syrian government troops of attacking a Turkish observation post in the province. Two days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a total of 14 servicemen had been killed and 45 injured in the recent attacks by the Syrian military in Idlib.

The Turkish president pledged to retaliate if Damascus failed to stop its operation in the zone and withdraw from the areas close to Turkey's observation posts by the end of the month. Erdogan also demanded that the Russian authorities put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop the offensive in Idlib, promising to launch a military operation in the region otherwise.

To ease tensions, Moscow and Ankara launched a series of consultations on the situation in Idlib, and the first round took place from February 8-10 in Ankara and the second from February 17-18 in Moscow. As a result of the negotiations, both sides confirmed their commitment to the existing agreements on Syria. However, Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said that Turkey was not satisfied with the outcome, stating that Ankara did not accept the map with de-escalation zone borders proposed by Moscow.

Meanwhile, both Moscow and Ankara continued to accuse each other of violating the Sochi agreements. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier in February that Turkey had not fulfilled several key commitments on Idlib, including its failure to distinguish between the armed opposition, which is ready for dialogue with the government within the framework of the political process, from terrorists. In turn, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay has claimed that Ankara had fulfilled its obligations in Idlib.

The third round of Russian-Turkish consultations on the Idlib crisis began in Ankara on Wednesday. Turkey again insisted on an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of the Sochi memorandum, stressing "the need to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and possible mass migration." Ankara also expressed a commitment to continue the crisis talks with Moscow.

However, earlier on Friday, Ankara said that 33 Turkish servicemen were killed and over 30 more were wounded in an airstrike conducted by the Syrian government forces in the Idlib province.

The situation was further complicated when Turkey announced that it was no longer able to restrain the flow of refugees from Syria to Europe, circumventing a Turkey-EU deal on combating the refugee crisis signed in 2016. The deal envisages financial assistance to Turkey for the reception of migrants. However, Brussels said that it had not yet been officially informed on Turkey's migration policy changes.

The government in Damascus has so far remained silent on the situation in Idlib. Meanwhile, Syria's Ambassador to China, Imad Moustapha, blamed Erdogan for the Turkish soldiers' deaths.

'TREACHEROUS ATTACK' OR FAILED COORDINATION?

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Syrian troops attacked terrorists in the de-escalation zone as they were planning to conduct a large-scale attack on Syrian military positions. The Turkish soldiers, who were among the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham members for an unknown reason, came under fire in the area near the settlement of Behun. The Russian military stressed that they had constantly requested the coordinates of the Turkish troops' location, and, according to data received from the Turkish side, their soldiers were not and should not have been in that area.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday that Turkish drones and ground forces attacked more than 200 Syrian army targets in response to the "treacherous attack."�

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated later in the day that Moscow remained committed to the agreements reached in Sochi between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan on Idlib and extended condolences to Ankara in connection with the deaths of the Turkish troops. At the same time, he said that an escalation could have been avoided if the Turkish military had communicated its exact location coordinates.

"The problem is not that someone has a plan that contradicts the initial agreement on the Idlib de-escalation zone, the problem is how the agreements are implemented in practice. And how is that deconfliction performed in practice," Lavrov explained.

NATO LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT TURKEY

Predictably, Turkey gained the support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After the Syrian airstrike, Turkey announced that it had engaged in consultations with NATO, as it was an attack not only "on Turkey alone, but an attack on the international community." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in turn, called for an immediate ceasefire in Idlib, slamming Syria's airstrike and offering condolences to Ankara.

"Today Turkey briefed on the serious security situation in Syria. Allies offer their deepest condolences for the death of Turkish soldiers in last night's bombing in Idlib. And expressed their full solidarity with Turkey. Allies condemn the continued indiscriminate airstrikes by the Syrian regime and Russia in Idlib province. I call on them to stop their offensive. To respect international law. And to back UN efforts for a peaceful solution," Stoltenberg said.

At the same time, Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, who visited Moscow on Friday for talks with Lavrov, said that NATO should not interfere in the situation.

According to Moscow, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Charter that sees an offensive against one of the alliance's members in Europe or North America as an offensive against the whole organization could not be applied to the recent escalation in Syria. Russia states, citing another article of NATO Charter, that an offensive is supposed to mean an armed attack "on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France, on the territory of Turkey or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer," while Turkish soldiers were killed on Syrian territory, which is not under Turkey's jurisdiction.

Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Moustapha told Sputnik that Erdogan was "desperately" trying to drag the United States and Western European countries into the ongoing conflict in Idlib even though this will only lead to further exasperation in the region.

"Erdogan is desperately attempting to drag the US and Western Europe to a major world conflict in Syria, hoping that, eventually, he will be able to realize his illusory Islamic Caliphate fantasy, regardless of the costs," the ambassador stated.

US AND EUROPE CALLING FOR END OF MILITARY OPERATION...

The United States also expressed support for Turkey amid the spiked tensions and called for an end to the offensive.

"We stand by our NATO Ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iranian-backed forces. As the President and the Secretary have said, we are looking at options on how we can best support Turkey in this crisis," a State Department spokesperson told Sputnik.

Berlin, in turn, says that its offers to hold a four-way summit on Idlib still stands, as Ankara, Paris and Germany itself have already expressed their readiness for these talks.

"I can say for the German government that we are following the latest escalation in northwestern Syria, in Idlib province, with great concern. As for the attack on Turkish positions, which led to the death of more than 30 Turkish soldiers, we condemn it," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a briefing on Friday.

However, in the run-up to the escalation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that, according to Moscow, there was no need to invite France and Germany to join Russia-Turkey consultations on the situation in Idlib.

Meanwhile, Iran is calling for early stabilization of the situation in Syria in light of the heightened tensions in the de-escalation zone. On Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Tehran was exerting effort to convene a Russia-Turkey-Iran summit in light of the Idlib escalation, proposing that they host the summit, as agreed during the last Astana process meeting.

"Taking into account the decision of the previous summit of the 'Astana process' to hold a meeting in our country, Iran will continue to make efforts to organize the meeting and I am convinced that it ... can be effective for a political resolution of the contradictions," the Foreign Ministry said on its Telegram channel.

Tehran also condemned the actions of "third parties" attempting to hinder the Astana process, pointing at the United States, which "has always irresponsibly sought to create tension in the region" and plunder Syria's oil reserves.

On Friday morning, Putin and Erdogan held phone talks on the issue at the request of the Turkish president, stressing the need for additional steps to ensure the stabilization of the situation in northwestern Syria. The presidents also agreed to enhance inter-agency consultations and work on possible high-level meetings. Several hours later, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a possibility of a Putin-Erdogan meeting in Moscow on March 5 or 6 was being studied.

However, Erdogan does not plan to limit the discussion on Idlib to the Russian president only. On Friday, he will hold phone talks with the leaders of the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.