MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan started their talks on Syria in the Kremlin on Thursday.
The talks are focusing on the situation in Syria’s Idlib de-escalation area. As Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters, the Kremlin expects both leaders to reach common understanding on the causes and the consequences of the Idlib crisis and to work out "a set of necessary joint measures to subsequently stop it."
According to Peskov, Moscow stands for the territorial integrity of Syria and supports Damascus in its fight against terrorism while remaining committed to the Sochi accords and attaching "great importance to interaction with Turkish partners."
The Turkish leader told reporters on Wednesday he expected the talks in Moscow "to achieve a ceasefire soon." Before that, he assured that Turkey had no claims on Syrian territory or the desire to gain foothold there.
Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a memorandum in May 2017 that included the Idlib province in one of four de-escalation areas in Syria. In September 2018, the Russian and Turkish presidents agreed at their talks in Sochi to set up a de-militarized zone in that province 15-20 km deep along the contact line between the Syrian government troops and the armed opposition.
Despite the accords reached, radical militants were not withdrawn from Idlib and they continued shelling the government troops’ positions. The situation in the Idlib province has escalated several times since then, including at the beginning of 2020.
The situation in Idlib deteriorated dramatically on February 27 when militants launched a large-scale offensive, according to the data of Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Syrian government troops countered the attack with a strike, which, as Ankara claims, killed more than 30 Turkish servicemen. On the same day, Ankara launched a new operation in Syria codenamed Spring Shield, under which it is delivering strikes against the Syrian army’s facilities and manpower.