New accord seals Russian, Turkish power in northeast Syria
ANKARA (AP) — Russia and Turkey on Tuesday reached an agreement that would cement their power in Syria, deploying their forces across nearly its entire northeastern border to fill the void left by United States President Donald Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of US forces.
The accord caps a dramatic and swift transformation of the Syrian map unleashed by Trump’s decision two weeks ago to remove the American soldiers.
US troops in Syria fought five years alongside Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria and succeeded in bringing down the rule of the Islamic State (IS) group there at the cost of thousands of Kurdish fighters’ lives.
Now much of that territory would be handed over to US rivals.
The biggest winners are Turkey and Russia.
Turkey would get sole control over areas of the Syrian border captured in its invasion, while Turkish, Russian and Syria government forces would oversee the rest of the border region.
The new accord was reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, after six hours of negotiations as they pored over maps of Syria in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“I believe that this agreement will start a new era toward Syria’s lasting stability and it being cleared of terrorism. I hope that this agreement is beneficial to our countries and to our brothers in Syria,” Erdogan said.
America’s former US allies, the Kurdish fighters, are left hoping Moscow and Damascus will preserve some pieces of their autonomy dreams.