MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Syria hails implementation of the Russian-Turkish memorandum of understanding on joint efforts in northeastern Syria, the country’s Ambassador in Moscow Riyad Haddad told TASS on Sunday.
"Currently, the Turkish Armed Forces are being deployed to northeastern Syria. We view this situation as an invasion," the ambassador said.
"Nevertheless, at the Sochi summit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement on certain issues. If that memorandum is implemented, our perception will be positive," the diplomat stressed.
On October 9, Turkey launched a military incursion into northern Syria, codenaming it Operation Peace Spring, with the Turkish Armed Forces and the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army carrying it out. Erdogan’s military campaign kicked off with airstrikes on the positions of the previously US-backed Kurdish units. The Erdogan government claimed that its goal is to clear the border area of what it calls ‘terrorists’ (Turkey’s broad label of the Kurdish forces) and establish a 30 km-long buffer zone in Syria’s north, where over Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle. Turkey’s incursion into Syria triggered an outcry in the region and across the world. Damascus slammed the operation as an act of aggression, and the international community condemned Erdogan’s military operation.
On October 17, the United States and Turkey struck a deal to pause fighting. Turkey agreed to a 120-hour ceasefire so that Kurdish forces incorporated in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition could withdraw from the cross-border ‘safety area’ that Ankara seeks to set up.
On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum at a summit in Sochi on joint efforts in northeastern Syria. Kurdish military units were given 150 hours to withdraw from the 30-kilometer-deep area along the Turkish border. On November 1, the Russian and Turkish troops began joint patrols along the northern border of Syria.