Reuters, Moscow :
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that all attacks on Russian and Syrian government forces in Syria’s Idlib province should stop and that agreements it had struck with Turkey on the conflict had to be upheld.
Moscow made its comments, which underscore rising tensions over Syria between Russia and Turkey, after Syrian government forces took control of a highway in northwest Syria for the first time since 2012.
The Kremlin was commenting after Syrian government forces seized control of a highway in northwest Syria for the first time since 2012 and as talks ended between Turkey and Russia on stopping clashes that killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a week.
Turkey and Russia this week held talks in Ankara aimed at trying to dial down confrontations between Ankara and Damascus that have killed 13 Turkish soldiers in Idlib province in the past week.
Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, hashed out a deal with Turkey in 2018 to enforce a demilitarized zone in Idlib and another deal in October last year to remove Kurdish YPG fighters from areas close to the Turkish border.
But Moscow’s relations with Turkey have come under strain as Russian-backed Syrian government forces have pushed ahead with an offensive in the region that has displaced many civilians and stoked Turkish fears about refugee flows.
“At the moment, we consider the most important thing is the implementation of… agreements (between Russia and Turkey)… and of course the suppression of any terrorist activity directed against the Syrian armed forces and Russian military facilities,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“We consider such sorties from Idlib unacceptable,” he said.
Russia said last week that some of its troops had been killed in militant attacks in Idlib and that such attacks were emanating from a Turkish-controlled zone in the region.
Peskov said there were no plans currently for President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to hold face-to-face talks on Syria, but has repeatedly said that such a meeting could be arranged quickly if need be.
The Kremlin said on Feb. 11 that all attacks on Russian and Syrian government forces in Syria’s Idlib province had to stop and that a Russo-Turkish deal on northeast Syria had to be implemented.
Turkey expects Russia to stop the Syrian government’s attacks in the northwestern region of Idlib immediately, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to work with Moscow to resolve problems in the region.
Shelling by Syrian forces killed eight Turkish personnel on Monday, prompting a retaliation. The escalation disrupted a fragile cooperation between Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict, raising concerns over future collaboration.
On Wednesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to drive back the Syrian forces in Idlib unless they withdraw from the region by the end of month to stem an assault that he said had displaced close to 1 million people.
In televised comments to reporters in Baku, Cavusoglu said a Russian delegation would come to Turkey to discuss Idlib, adding Erdogan may hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after those talks if necessary.
“Our expectation from the (Syrian) regime’s guarantors, and specifically Russia here, is to immediately stop the regime. We are discussing these issues with Russia, with whom we have worked with until now,” Cavusoglu said.
“We conveyed our determination to our Russian counterparts,” he said adding Ankara was determined to stem the “humanitarian drama” in Idlib.
The violence in Idlib, the last major rebel-held stronghold in the country’s nearly nine-year war, has accelerated in recent months despite several ceasefire efforts, including as recently as January, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
The United Nations says 520,000 people have been displaced since early December and the numbers could increase.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Russian and Turkish “military specialists” were killed by militants who staged more than 1,000 attacks in Idlib in late January, adding that Moscow would continue to coordinate with Ankara and Tehran.
Erdogan has said Moscow, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Ankara, which supports rebels trying to oust him, should resolve the conflict “without anger”. Erdogan and Putin agreed to improve coordination of their countries’ actions in Syria during a phone call earlier this week.
