Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
Posted on 05/28/2019 8:12:17 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Idlib province, the Syrian opposition’s last stronghold, is a major source of dispute between seemingly staunch allies within the conflict, Turkey and Russia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 15 that by conducting air strikes and ground operations in Idlib, Syrian President Bashar Assad “sought to sabotage Turkish-Russian cooperation” and violate the ceasefire agreement. Not being able to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, Erdoğan instead chose to criticise Assad. But it seems that Putin got the message and responded to Erdoğan with another wave of air strikes on Idlib on May 17 that was followed by a unilateral ceasefire by the Assad regime and Russia.
According to different figures, up to 3 million civilians reside in Idlib and half of the residents are internally displaced people who have come from elsewhere in Syria. Idlib is also the last refuge for opposition fighters from other regions captured by government forces...
Due to its strategic importance, both the Assad regime and Russia are determined not to leave Idlib under opposition control. Retaking Idlib would be an important symbolic milestone towards Assad’s goal of reasserting control over all of Syria.
Idlib provides Russia leverage against Turkey. Russia and Turkey signed a memorandum in September to establish de-escalation zones in Idlib that put the burden of keeping opposition groups there in order on Turkish forces. But since then Russia and Assad regime have criticised Turkey and accused it of failing to fulfil its part of the deal. The biggest complaint was over Turkey’s unwillingness/failure to control several extremist groups, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-affiliated umbrella group that took control of most of Idlib's critical areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at ahvalnews.com ...
The cat (Putin/Russia) is playing with the mouse (Erdogan in Turkey). Putin always acts in his own interest.
Understanding the region is a multiplayer game. All alliances and apparent cooperation must be weighed and tested for age before conclusions mean anything.
Syrian Ping!
” by conducting air strikes and ground operations in Idlib, Syrian President Bashar Assad “sought to sabotage Turkish-Russian cooperation” and violate the ceasefire agreement. “
LOL.. So the Syrian government fighting to regain it’s own national territory from foreign created and inspired “rebels”, is sabotaging relations between Russia and Turkey.
Amazing accusation for an invader to accuse the nation they are invading of treachery for fighting them back.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
Russia and Assad regime have criticised Turkey and accused it of failing to fulfil its part of the deal. The biggest complaint was over Turkey’s unwillingness/failure to control several extremist groups, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham...
Their goal is to get Turkey to do the dirty work in Idlib, then the criticism will switch to Turkish occupation of the enclave. They're headed for a standoff.
Yes. Putin is playing cat, in cat and mouse game.
Yep. But there was a “deal” between Russia, Assad, and Iran to foil the US presence in Syria. Which included the Efrin (Afrin) invasion. Idlib was earlier.
Nobody ever accused Putin of not being smart. But he is often on the wrong side, against civilized nations.
US sanctions on Iran mean, pressure on Turkey, on NATO, and on the EU.
blam to GuavaCheesePuff: I was surprised to read recently that the population of Russia is decreasing by 700 DAILY. BTW, Russia is [geographically] the largest country in the world...has a smaller population that the island of Java...also, their GDP is small than the GDP of Texas.
(It's also got very little GDP that isn't attributable to either hydrocarbon exports and weapons sales. I checked into those population figures, it is danged close. Of course, Java is part of Indonesia, which has been in the top 15 for many years.)
Thanks for the interesting stats.
Turkey has been quick to circumvent our sanctions on Iran and other ME rogue nations, on the receiving end of US sanctions will pinch them where it hurts.
Erdooo will get the blame, and he deserves all of it.
Turkey used to be Europe's cork in the bottle, now that's irrelevant since the EU's policy is to let the Middle East muzzies stampede right on in. His hatred of the West blinded Erdogan as to his and his country's standing and prospects, now he and they are just dead men walking. Erdogan's misrule will look like the good old days compared with whatever Islamofascist nutjob (or much less possibly, puppet of Putin) replaces him.
Likely true. My gut tells me the Kemalist will move against him at some point.
Not much better than Erdogan over time, but at least they hate the Islamist nutjobs.
That won't happen. Even if there were a "black swan" assassination of E, Kemalists would have to be in positions of authority, and they're not. The best move for Turkey at the outset of Assad's civil war would have been to give autonomy to Turkey's Kurds, and recognize the Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, and in Syria. He'd have been able to build a landlocked ally that was nearly entirely dependent on him and on the US. For his own racist and Islamofascist reasons, he failed to do that. Like the PLO, he never misses and opportunity to miss and opportunity. Any con man (like Putin) who comes along and blows some smoke up his ass as if he's on an equal footing can play him like a cheap violin.
They are still a powerful force in Turkey. Erdooo disregards that at his own peril.
The March from Ankara to Istanbul gained great recognition and drew over a million people at the end of that march, near Istanbul.
Erdoo and the AKP were very silent then.
It is still there, but Erdoo knows how to steal elections.
Erdoo has purged the military of many of the best officers, mostly Kemalists.
There are a lot of Turkish Kemalists abroad. They absolutely hate Erdoo.
Yes the Age of Ataturk there has clearly past!
Nope. Now he has a law about "disrespecting Islam". He just accused a women's march of doing just that.
Confused ?
Ataturk would have done something similar?
Yeah I’m not getting this!
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