ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th June, 2020) The situation in Syria's Idlib is stabilizing, despite isolated incidents in the area of the M4 highway, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
"Sometimes problems arise in Idlib on the M4 highway, but in general, things are going well, 200,000 refugees have already returned home," Erdogan said on TRT television.
The situation in Idlib escalated in late February, when terrorists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (banned in Russia) launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian government forces. The Syrian army returned fire. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Turkish military, who were not supposed to be there, also came under fire.
After a meeting of Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Erdogan in Moscow on March 5, it became possible to improve the situation - the sides adopted a joint document in which they reaffirmed their commitment to the Astana format and declared a ceasefire. In addition, Moscow and Ankara agreed to jointly patrol the important M4 highway.
