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Mariana Belenkaya wrote in “Kommersant” about the explosive time bombs in Russian-Turkish relations in Syria.
The article says: The agreements between the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, regarding Syria, are threatened with being interrupted. The Syrian opposition accuses Russian forces of bombing Idlib. Meanwhile, Ankara calls on Moscow to halt attacks by pro-Syrian forces in Turkish-controlled areas in northern Syria. Moscow also has reason to demand that Turkey comply with the agreements. On Sunday night, the Turkish Air Force bombed the Raqqa governorate for the first time in 17 months. The Russian forces are also dissatisfied with the actions of the pro-Turkish formations.
The ceasefire agreement was signed in the Idlib de-escalation zone in March last year in the presence of the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A few months earlier, the two leaders also agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria, thus halting the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish Self-Defense Forces. However, both Moscow and Ankara have complaints about the implementation of both agreements.
Rather, Moscow is trying, at the highest level, to pretend that everything remains stable in relations with Ankara, despite the existing difficulties. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu indicated in an interview with the Kazakh news agency “Tengrinews” that Russia and Turkey have managed to reach compromises even when this seems impossible.
Ankara also does not directly accuse Moscow of anything. Yet at the same time, President Erdogan, in an article published by Bloomberg in mid-March, on the 10th anniversary of the conflict in Syria, clearly appealed to the West and demanded that it help Ankara end “the tragedy in this country”. “His options include military, economic and diplomatic measures, as well as investments in” safe zones “in Syria, that is, those under Turkish tutelage. There was no talk of Russia and cooperation with it.
