Turkish President Erdogan has landed in Russia to meet his Russian counterpart over escalation in Syria, in its Idlib province. The two leaders met at Zhukovsky International Airport in Russia on Tuesday. Before the visiting president’s formal meeting with Putin, he was led to the MAKS-2019, an annual Russia aviation and space fair. Accompanied with his Russian counterpart, President Erdogan visited the annual exhibition with the keenness of a potential buyer.
The meeting between the two leaders followed a phone call exchanged between them in which Erdogan described the situation in Idlib province as a humanitarian crisis. The tensions between Turkey and Russia arose since the Russian-backed Syrian military targeted a Turkish envoy en route to Syria’s Idlib province. As a logical continuation of those developments, Erdogan told Putin that escalation in Idlib province is a threat to its (Turkish) national security. It could not only renew the hostilities that were almost stifled following the last year’s deal between Turkey and Russia. In September 2018, the de-escalation zones had resulted from the deal near the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib.
However, the temporary peace was disrupted by the recent Syrian airstrikes on a Turkish convoy, which Turkish side said was carrying humanitarian aid. But which the Syrian forces claim was carrying reinforcement for the rebels fighting Assad regime.
A day before Erdogan’s visit to Russia, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitiri Peskov, sought to neutralize Ankara’s resentment by saying Russia understands the Turkish worries about Idlib. But in the same breath, he added that Russia is equally concerned over the increased presence of Jihadist terrorists in the enclave, although the Turkish-Russian deal last year had suggested the withdrawal of all terror groups from the demilitarized province.
Besides the escalation in Syria, the visiting president seems to have another reason to visit Russia. Before the official talks, Putin introduced to his guest Russia’s sophisticated SU-57 air crafts at a time when United States has excluded Turkey from the F-35 project because of Erdogan’s decision of deploying Russian S-400 air defense systems.
The growing Turkey-Russia ties have raised concerns in NATO camps, particularly the United States, which has downgraded its relations with Turkey. Currently, the trade between Turkey and Russia is around $25 billion, but their goal as Erdogan is $100 billion.
Related Article: https://www.rushhourdaily.com/is-syria-war-over-following-assad-regimes-control-of-idlib-town/
