Faced with the prospect of al-Qaeda forces in Syria getting totally overrun, Turkey has sent troops back into the Idlib Province, and are attacking the Syrian military, nominally to defend themselves as the Syrian military was looking to reclaim the town of Saraqeb from al-Qaeda. Syria fired shells at al-Qaeda, and hit Turkish troops.
Russia and Turkey were meant to have a deal over this matter, but Turkey’s President Erdogan has warned Russia not to “stand in their way” in attacking the Syrian military. Erdogan had threatened to use military force on Syria Friday, and are now attacking them outright.
Turkish officials say in the course of sieging Saraqeb, eight Turkish soldiers were killed. The Turkish state media reported that in subsequent attacks they hit 54 targets in the vicinity and killed at least 76 Syrian soldiers.
Syria recently reclaimed the town of Maarat al-Numaan from al-Qaeda. The town, along with Saraqeb, are on the main highway connecting the capital of Damascus and the major northern city of Aleppo. The Syrian government clearly wants to control this valuable highway, and get al-Qaeda away from it.
Turkey, which has suffered their first combat deaths in the entire Syrian War, has a long history of acting to benefit the Syrian al-Qaeda faction, despite them nominally not being part of the Turkish-backed rebels.
When Turkey negotiated a safe zone in Idlib with Russia, they did so leaving a lot of al-Qaeda’s territory within the safe zone. While that was meant to be cleared of hostile forces on either side, it never was, and after months of fighting, Syria went after al-Qaeda again. Turkish officials now view that as a “violation,” even though al-Qaeda was never officially a party to any of these deals, and were not supposed to be recognized by any of the parties as the rightful rulers of any towns or cities in Idlib.
Turkey is begging for a smackdown … Russia will oblige if they keep this up.
To me Turkey is as much against Syria as Al Qatda , ISIS , USA or any other criminal group .
That’s what makes this conflict so interesting. Turkey is also quarreling with Israel.
You’d think Erdogan would like Assad, for keeping the Kurds in line. That Erdogan doesn’t proves I don’t understand the region.
Kurds never really fought against Assad .And Assad should welcome the Kurds again o stand with Syria .
The Kurds want independence. Assad wants them under his rule. Turkey will not accept Kurdish independence. Israel and the US want Kurdish independence, believing that somehow Turkey won’t attack them.
Israel also wants Sunni jihadists to overthrow Assad, as does Turkey.
Russia is neutral in this conflict.
Putin is too much of a crybaby to do anything. Russia stupidity sold Turkey and the Saudis the s400 that can be used against Russia.
You believe it’s stupid, but it isn’t necessarily so. The S400 can be used against others, not only Russia.
Russia’s strategy seems to be to empower others, such that they can stand on their own rather than follow the US empire.
Russia is empowering the Saudis and Erdogan, 3 supporters of the very terrorists they are fighting. Russia sees dollar signs and nothing else matters. Erdogan is playing neutral with Russia and the us. His warning Putin not to interfere shows he as well as Netanyahu don’t fear or respect Russia. Despite repeated Russian threats of retaliation Israel continues to attack Syria and Russia continues to do nothing. They know that Putin is weak and won’t retaliate. This makes russias weapons useless as a deterrent.
Well, Russia should sell Syria S-400s. But if Syria were too independent, it might rely less on Russia. Russia might lose its base, for example.
I think you’re correct that Russia is interested in money, but I also believe it wants a truly multi-polar world order, which means proliferation of some weapons, to reduce the dominance the US enjoys. Russia is just strong enough to make trouble.
Helping Turkey and SA enables both to oppose the US and Israel. And at least the Saudis are somewhat interested in working with Iran. I don’t fully understand Erdogan. I know he has ambitions to expand Turkey’s influence, possibly its territory.
In theory, if you have a dominant US, then it’s best for world peace to prevent the spread of weapons, provided the US stays out of world affairs. That way, war is less destructive. However, what’s resulted is Neocons using the US to interfere everywhere. So, any sort of empowerment reduces their ability to interfere.
And this could mean empowerment by Neocons, such as in Iraq. Eg. Iraqis using what they’ve been given to resist the Neocons. The neocon virtue, in a sense, is that they have no sense of ethics, are willing to do anything. Their vice is that they’re inept.
Putin will straighten Erdogan out. Just a matter of some negotiation.
Erdogan needs Putin’s support for his missile defense.
The next meeting between R. Erdogan and V. Putin will be interesting to say the least. More weapons are transferred to both the LNA and the GNA of Libya.
I wonder if russia will test its S400 against an F16?
Erdogan seems to understand that his military is too big to mess with.
Or maybe he just wants the US to like him again. The US was on the verge of obliterating his economy. Now, maybe it won’t.
Turkey is big enough to look after their own affairs. Don’t you worry about that. When push comes to shove, Turkey will respond whether the Russians want it or not
I think you dream too much. 🇷🇺 is prepared to not only sell S-400s to Turkey but to transfer technology to it as well. S-500s will also be offered to 🇹🇷.
Time for Putin to put up or shut up. The world will be watching closely.
Putin is too weak to do anything other than complain.
I prefer wait and see. We are talking as if we really know the situation on the ground. It has been my beef from the. beginning of Syria conflict. Rebels, Islamists, Salafists, Al-Qaeda. We do not know what caused the incident. We do not have a clue what is Turkey doing
there. We do not know full story, just knee jerk reactions. Turkey is clearly attempting to bring Al-Qaeda under its control. Since Helmets are Bitish ops, I doubt it will work. Now they can be shooting at both, and hope for deflecting from them. Do not dismiss the determination if West to keep one part if Syria under its control and resist all efforts to have them drop their arms.
Thus — patience. We heard same story of Turkey hitting Syrian army in operation against Kurds. I prefer to see dust settle. Turkish and Syrian intelligence recently had open meeting, signaling end game. It will not be pretty nor simple.
Turkey needs to be put in its place. Erdogan has overplayed his hand. He is also a fool and a horrible leader.
There is no other leader to replace him. You will have to put up with him until at least Turkey’s next Presidential Election in 2023.
Turkey would be unwise to invade Syria .
They already have.
When they are invited by the legal government of Syria, it’s not an invasion. For an example of invasion, see our invasion of Iraq.
O.k., I will call it an incursion directly aimed at militant Kurds.
What about their presence in Idlib, coddling al Qaeda and killing Syrian soldiers?
You do remember the Astana Treaty designed to bring lasting peace in Idlib Province, don’t you? Turkey was looking at the unfolding events of Assad forces violating peace agreement by advancing on Turkish observation posts as well as continued fighting in region. Syria’s excuse that they misfired on Turkish troops was unacceptable. I am sure if you were the commander of Turkish forces, you would seek deadly retaliation. Idlib Province borders with Turkey’s mainland where fighting continues mainly involving pro-Assad forces backed up by Russian support. Both are guilty of treaty violations according to Ankara. I don’t know what role the FSA Free Syrian Army (pro-Turkey) millitia is playing in this region. Turkish and Russian forces were patrolling the set up Safe Zone along the border. The Russian patrol was eventually cancelled. The Al-Qaeda presence is something the Turkish millitary have to deal with. The Safe Zone is meant to be a safe place for displaced Syrian refugees from Turkey to return and live in peace.
What I heard is the Turks were traveling in a convoy without notification to the Syrian and Russian forces as per agreement and were fired upon.
Idlib is more of a detention zone for terrorists on the lamb from areas reconquered by the Syrian Arab Army. It’s the Eastern border area that was to be a resettlement area for returning refugees that had the joint Russian/Turk patrols.
There is no “Astana Treaty” other than the trade agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia. There are peace talks taking place there but they are ongoing.
I’m pretty sure the Syrians didn’t ‘invite” anyone other than Russia, Iran and hezbollah into their country.
I don’t think Turkey was invited , Russia and Iran were .
Turkey already has invaded Syria when the US got out of their way .
But wait; isn’t Syria a Russian “ally”? Meanwhile, Putin kisses up to Israel, anther regime constantly attacking Syria.
I think you have it backwards. Putin is in the driver’s seat and everyone in the region – not just israel – recognizes him as “the adult in the room”.
Even E. Macron?
Sure. Wasn’t it Macron and Merkel that approached Putin to settle the Ukraine civil war that resulted in the Minsk Agreement?
Don’t be naive. Putin is one of them. The longer this thing drags out, the more likely the globalists win. If
Russia would have kept up their intense bombing campaign up back in 2015 the issue could have been settled then. The excuse for the end to that campaign was never revealed. The globalists and Zionists are just waiting out Assad. As for
Putin? He was handpicked by
Yeltsin and company for a reason. Fake opposition.
If Putin was one of them they wouldn’t be treating him so shabbily.
If the whole thing is a charade that would be the way to go. False opposition is the name of the game on multiple levels. Both sides seemingly pitted against each other to justify oppression at home and keeping the pretty little hate machine going so the merchants of death keep the profits rolling in. The
Russian arms industry needs to sell war as well. Not to mention central banks who make the big bucks off of war.
Putin’s opposition to the encroachment of NATO on it’s borders is quite genuine – as is the West’s campaign of sanctions and slander against Russia.
Putin is not a globalist but the United States and NATO are the globalists
Israel claims to be neutral on Syria Israel only attacks Hezabola that Israel says are Lebanese terrorists funded by Iran .
How far will the conflict between Syria and Turkey go? Russia is supposed to remain neutral whenever Turkish forces intervene. For Al-Qaeda forces to remain inside the Safe Zone is beyond belief. Turkish and Russian forces were jointly doing the patrols along the border before the Russian role was cancelled. There will have to be a change of strategy in Turkish command to clear Al-Qaeda forces from the Safe Zone. It battle for Turkish millitary to seize back control of observation posts continue. It is reported no major damage done to the relationship between President Erdogan and President Putin.
If Syria does not soon become a united state again it might become the fuse for much bigger conflagrations. Look who is fighting there: Syrians, Russians, Americans, Turks, Israeli’s, probably a few Lebanese and Iranians too. They are not murdering for a common goal. They are murdering others for establishing regional power.
The Syrian people are worse off than the Germans at the beginning of May 1945 when their defeat was all but sealed. And Assad is not going to commit suicide.
outrageously untrue statement.
Syria is too weak to expand. It’s only defending its borders currently. Maybe you mean others are battling over regional power, which is certainly true.
Comparing Syria to Germany is odd, because the Syrian nationality is Arab, plus Kurds. And at least currently they’re divided by Shia vs. Sunni, other divides.
ISIS must be thanking Allah for Erdogan, sent to them in their hour of need.
Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-CIAda, is backed by Turkey and will eventually be wiped out by the Syrian Army and Russia. The treacherous Erdogan is making up stories about killing Syrians when in fact Turkey is the one that stands to lose the most in Idlib Province. He was trying to get Putin on the phone the other day to explain why he’d just killed four Russian soldiers… Putin didn’t take his call. Something big, coming up soon.
According to the Russians, no Turkish aircraft crossed into Syria during the time Erdogan claims the strikes took place.
Fake news. Neither Turkey nor their cutthroat merc’s has killed any Syrian soldiers after the Syrian advance on Saraqib. There is no confirmation anywhere on Ditz’s claims. What Erdogan claimed was a face saving measure for domestic consumption and has nothing to do with reality.
SAA continues to advance in their pincher movement on Saraqib in order to keep the crucial M4 open. So far they have succeeded. Erdogan is trying to block them but there’s little he can do since any advance will be met by the Russian or Syrian airforces.