Vlad & Erdo make a deal
Syrian 'terror-free' zone created
Turkey and Russia on Tuesday agreed to create a “terrorfree safe zone” in northern Syria and launch joint patrols on the border in a deal reached hours before a five-day ceasefire was about to expire.
The announcement came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan huddled with Vladimir Putin in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for more than five hours.
“We had a very productive meeting with our Russian counterparts today,” a top Turkish official said. “We reached an excellent agreement. We agreed to establish a terror-free safe zone.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that the two leaders agreed to have Russian military police and Syrian border guards deployed on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey beginning Wednesday.
Over the next six days, they would remove the Kurdish fighters and their weapons from northern Syria, then launch joint patrols along a sixmile strip of the border.
Kurdish civilians in the region fear the move will destroy their self-rule and create a demographic shift as Turkey moves Syrain refugees in the area.
Jim Jeffrey, the senior US diplomat in Syria, questioned whether the plan would be successful.
“It’s full of holes,” he told a congressional hearing. “All I know is it will stop the Turks from moving forward. Whether the Russians will ever live up to their commitment . . . I don’t know.”
Under the deal, Turkey would continue to control a 20mile-deep swath of northern Syria that runs roughly 75 miles between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.
Turkey, Russia and Syria will have influence in the remainder of the territory east and west of that area.
“This operation also guarantees Syria’s territorial integrity and political unity . . . We never had any interest in Syria’s land and sovereignty,” Erdogan said after the meeting with Putin.
Erdogan launched an invasion three days after President Trump told him in an Oct. 6 phone call that US troops would be pulled out of the area.
American Special Forces had been working with the Kurdish militia in Syria since 2014 to destroy the Islamic State terrorist group.
But Ankara considers those
Kurds to be a terrorist organization aligned with an insurgent group that has been battling the government for decades within Turkey.
Vice President Mike Pence’s office said it has been told by the leader of the Kurdish forces, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, that his troops have “withdrawn from the relevant area of operations.”
A five-day cease-fire brokered with Erdogan last Thursday with the vice president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended at 3 p.m. Tuesday.