Truce brings relief but no joy in battered Idlib Syria
For the first time in three months, Omar Zaqzaq says, he and his family slept through the entire night, without an air strike or artillery shell jolting them out of bed.
Idlib’s skies were completely free of Russian and Syrian government warplanes yesterday as a ceasefire deal took hold in Syria’s northwestern province, the last rebel stronghold.
The truce, brokered by Turkey and Russia, halted a terrifying three-month air and ground campaign that killed hundreds and sent a million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.
But there is no joy among residents of the province, or for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who say they won’t be returning to their homes any time soon.
‘‘The truce is only a chance for the two sides to catch their breath,’’ said Zaqzaq, who lives in the rebel-held town of Binnish, along with his wife, 5-year-old daughter Maria and 3-year-old son Akef. ‘‘It’s a very fragile truce and I don’t think it will last long.’’
The agreement, announced on Friday after a six-hour meeting between the Turkish and Russian presidents in Moscow, essentially froze the conflict lines in Idlib. It does not force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to roll back significant military gains made in Russian-backed offensives for the past three months – a key Turkish demand prior to the talks.
That effectively rules out the possibility of hundreds of thousands of displaced people returning to their homes, now under Assad’s control.
‘‘If we wanted to live under their mercy (Russia and the Syrian government), we would have stayed there,’’ said Alaa Turki Hammam, a 25-year-old who fled his home near Marat alNuman and is now at a camp west of the mountainous town of Haranabush, near the Turkish border. ‘‘Now, after this meeting, we have lost even 1 per cent hope that we would return to our homes.’’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan each back opposing sides in the conflict, and have become the main power brokers in the war-torn country.
The deal is the latest of many ceasefire agreements for Idlib in recent years. All have ended up unravelling after a few months, triggering new government offensives that captured more territory from the opposition. Government forces now control much of Syria after evicting rebels from other parts of country.
The ceasefire deal appears to achieve Moscow’s key goal of allowing the Syrian government to keep control of the north-south highway known as the M5. Syrian forces captured its last segments in the latest offensive.
The deal lacked specifics or a known mechanism to enforce the truce, saying that details would be worked out by Russian and Turkish officials within a week.
Turkey, a strong backer of the rebels, has intervened in the war four times to carve out zones of influence. It has sent thousands of troops to Idlib, leading to direct clashes in which 60 Turkish soldiers and scores of Syrian troops have been killed in the past month.
Idlib resident and journalist
Erdogan said yesterday there would be ‘‘no question of change’’ regarding Turkey’s observation posts inside Idlib, some of which now fall within Syrian government-controlled territory.
Despite the disappointment and scepticism, the ceasefire has brought relief to a weary and displaced population traumatised by years of conflict and weeks of relentless bombardment amid freezing weather.
‘‘Warplanes that used to terrorise children at night and commit massacres are not flying overhead now,’’ said Salwa AbdulRahman, a citizen journalist in Idlib’s provincial capital, which bears the same name.
However, many residents who have been displaced in the past three months were angry ‘‘because they were hoping to return to their homes’’, which were now under government control, she said.
‘‘This matter concerns us, Syrians, but it seems we don’t have a say in this. They are playing chess with us,’’ she said of the Russia-Turkey agreement.
Idlib province is home to thousands of al Qaeda-linked militants, many of whom reject a political solution for Syria’s nineyear conflict, which has killed more than 400,000 people. It is also home to about 3 million people, many of whom fled from other parts of Syria.
Zaqzaq said the truce ‘‘gave legitimacy’’ to the advances by Syrian forces in the past weeks – and that, bit by bit, they will take back more chunks of Idlib after alleging ceasefire violations.
‘‘This happened in Daraa, Ghouta, Rastan, and now now it is biting off new areas under the pretext that the ceasefire was violated. They will then negotiate a truce from the (next) area they reach,’’ he said.
The head of the United Nations children’s agency has asked Syrian government officials for more access, saying it is critical to bring aid to ‘‘the most vulnerable’’ in the war-torn country, which is experiencing one of the conflict’s worst humanitarian crises yet.
Henrietta Fore, Unicef’s executive director, spoke yesterday following a twoday visit to Syria where she toured areas close to the northwestern province of Idlib, the country’s last remaining rebel stronghold.
‘‘We do hope that [the ceasefire] will hold,’’ she said. ‘‘That is the most important thing for the children and for their families.’’
Many of the families currently in Idlib have been displaced from other parts of Syria.
‘‘Some of them have moved three, four, five, six times. It’s just too much for a family, it’s just too much for a child. There are mental health ramifications for children if you move them that often,’’ Fore said.
The UN says an economic crisis is pushing millions of Syrians into hunger and food insecurity. The number of food-insecure people increased from 6.5 million to 7.9 million, and food prices spiked by 60 per cent, between 2018 and 2019.
Fore said UN agencies needed access not only in Idlib but also northeastern Syria, where there are some 28,000 children from over 60 countries in the al-Hol camp, which is home to more than 60,000 people, mostly wives, widows and children of members of the Islamic State group.
Earlier this year, Russia scored a victory for its ally, the Syrian government, when it used its veto threat to force the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution significantly reducing the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid and cutting off critical medical assistance to over a million Syrians. – AP
‘‘We don’t have a say in this. [Russia and Turkey] are playing chess with us.’’ Salwa Abdul-Rahman,