Turkish army vehicles and military personnel are seen near the Turkish-Syrian border on October 12, 2019. IMAGE: Reuters / Murad Sezer
On March 17, a large convoy of the Turkish military entered the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib through the Ayn al-Bayda border crossing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The London-based monitoring group said that the convoy’s vehicles were deployed in a number of Turkish posts along the Lattakia-Aleppo highway, also known as the M4.
“The convoy consisted of 50 vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, battle tanks, mobile rocket launchers and heavy howitzers,” the SOHR’s report reads.
According to the monitoring group, the convoy’s vehicles will be redeployed to Turkish posts in the towns of Kansafra, Baluon and Shnan in the al-Zawiya Mount in the southern Idlib countryside on March 18.
The Turkish military has more than 60 positions in Greater Idlib, which is tightly controlled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Despite being ruled by a terrorist group, the region is still under a ceasefire agreement that was brokered by Russia and Turkey on 5 March 2020.
Turkey has been working to build a large military presence in Greater Idlib since late 2018. While Turkish forces are supposed to be present in the region to enforce the ceasefire, they continue to turn a blind eye to HTS and several other terrorist groups.
Turkish forces in Greater Idlib will likely take military action against the Syrian military and its allies if they attempt to launch a new ground operation against terrorist groups in the region similar to what we saw during the battle of 2019-2020.
‘Turkey will likely take military action…’ it looks that turkey is preparing to do so.
In a one-on-one “special operation” between Turkey and Russia, without the nukes, Turkey would crush the Russian vintage world.