Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan pose before their meeting in Ankara
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin discussed the new developments in Syria’s Greater Idlib with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on August 22.
“They [Putin and Erdogan] agreed to step up joint efforts to eliminate the terrorist threat coming from the area [Greater Idlib] and implement the Sochi Memorandum signed on September 17, 2018,” a statement by the Kremlin press service reads.
The militants violated every term of the Sochi agreement, which forced the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to launch a military operation in Greater Idlib, earlier this month. Within a few weeks, the army captured several militants’ stronghold and managed to besiege a Turkish observation post in northern Hama.
The Turkish Presidency said that Erdogan told Putin during the phone call that the operation in Greater Idlib “damage efforts to find a solution to the Syrian crisis and pose a serious threat to Turkey’s national security.”
Despite their differences, Russia and Turkey are still coordinating on Greater Idlib. Both countries and even Damascus are clearly not interested in any confrontation over this issue.
