Turkey, Russia agree to create ‘terror-free safe zone’ in Syria By Mark Moore
https://nypost.com/2019/10/22/turkey-russia-agree-to-create-terror-free-safe-zone-in-syria/
Turkey and Russia agreed Tuesday to create a “terror-free safe zone” in northern Syria and launch joint patrols in a deal reached hours before a five-day cease-fire was about to expire, according to a report citing a senior Turkish official.
The announcement came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“We had a very productive meeting with our Russian counterparts today,” an official said, Reuters reported. “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 deploy on the Syrian side of the Turkey border beginning Wednesday.
Over the next six days, they would remove the Kurdish fighters and their weapons from northern Syria.
After the Kurds are removed, Turkey and Russia, which has been backing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, would launch joint patrols along a six-mile strip of the border.
Turkey would also continue to control a 20-mile-deep swath of northern Syria that runs roughly 75 miles between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.
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 told reporters after the meeting with Putin.
Erdogan launched the invasion three days after President Trump told him in an Oct. 6 phone call that he would remove US troops from the area.
American special forces had been working with Kurdish militia in Syria since 2014 to destroy the Islamic State terrorist group.
But Ankara considers the Kurdish militia to be a terrorist organization aligned with an insurgent group that has been battling the government for decades inside Turkey.
Vice President Mike Pence’s office said it has been told by the leader of the Kurdish forces, Gen. Mazloun Abdi, that his troops have “withdrawn from the relevant area of operations.”
A five-day cease-fire brokered with Erdogan on Thursday with the vice president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, typically a strong Trump supporter, introduced legislation prodding the president to halt the withdrawal.
But he counseled against economic sanctions on Turkey, lest the US “further drive a NATO ally into the arms of the Russians.”
With Wire Services
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