Erdogan says he hopes Idlib ceasefire agreement in Putin talks | New

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped to reach a ceasefire in northwestern Syria when he meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later this week.

"I will be going to Moscow on Thursday to discuss the development of the situation in Syria," Erdogan told members of his party in the capital, Ankara.

"I hope that he (Putin) will take the necessary measures there, like a cease-fire, and that we will find a solution to this matter," Erdogan said in the televised speech on Monday , who intervened in a climate of tension following a resurgence of tensions. fighting between Turkish and Syrian forces in the war-torn country Idlib.

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Turkey, which supports certain groups in the last rebel-held bastion held by Idlib, has sent thousands of soldiers to the province, where a Russian-backed government offensive has forced nearly a million people to flee to the Turkish border closed since December.

On Sunday, following the murder of dozens of soldiers in recent days,Turkey confirmed that it had launched a large-scale military operation against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but said it was not seeking direct confrontation with Russia.

"We are not aiming to confront Russia. Our only aim is to put an end to the massacres of the Syrian regime, to radical groups and to the displacement of civilians," said Turkish Defense Minister , Hulusi Akar.

In his speech, Erdogan said that Turkish forces had rendered the Syrian government's Nayrab military airport, east of Aleppo unusable on Sunday.

"We don't need anyone's help or support, we will continue our operations by ourselves, "said Erdogan.

Also on Monday, the Kremlin said that cooperation with Turkeyon Syria is an absolute priority, confirming the meeting between Erdogan and Putin scheduled for March 5.

"Russia attaches "great importance to cooperation with our Turkish partners," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

Earlier, the TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying that his country did not plan to wage war on anyone, but wanted to dissuade other countries from engaging in conflict with Moscow.

Refugee crisis

Despite the support given to opposing parties in the war in Syria, Turkey and Russia have co-ordinated closely in the past. In 2018, they concluded an agreement that led Ankara to establish 12 military observation posts in Idlib, where more than three million people live, to prevent an offensive by the Syrian government.

Last month, Erdogan had repeatedly warned that Turkey would remove Syrian government forces from its military observation posts in Idlib.

The confrontation between Syria and Turkey, a member of NATO, has raised concerns about a wider conflict and a refugee crisis in Europe similar to 2015, when more than a million people fled to Europe in what has become the continent's worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Turkey is already hosting more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees and says it can no longer absorb it.

The number of refugees has already increased along the European border after Erdogan, seeking to pressure the EU on Syria, said last week that the country had "opened the doors" to the country. # 39; Europe.

"The EU must keep its promises," said Erdogan, referring to an agreement concluded in 2016 with Brussels to stop the flow of refugees in exchange for billions of euros in financial aid.

Greece said on Sunday that it had blocked nearly 10,000 Syrian refugees on its border with Turkey.

Some 13,000 refugees have gathered on the Turkish-Greek border, including families with young children who have spent the night in the cold, said the International Organization for Migration.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies