Following a few days, Syria was caught in a bit of a valley and cliff situation, as Russia and Turkey refused to lay down arms and laid waste in the Syrian province of Idlib. However, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s leader Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to establish a ceasefire as talks went ahead and an agreement was finalized in Moscow.
The following talks came after an astounding six hours of negotiations between Putin and Erdogan in the Kremlin. While the agreement terms were not disclosed, it has been agreed that Russia and Turkey will observe a ceasefire that will begin from midnight Thursday along the existing line of contact in Idlib, where the Syrian backed government forces backed by Moscow are at war by rebels supported by Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov who disclosed the agreement at a press conference said that the Turkish and Russian troops will even begin joint patrols along Idlib’s M4 highway, which was at the center point of the fighting, up until now. A six-kilometer “security belt” will also be created in the areas surrounding the north and the south of the highway, Lavrov further quoted. However, the zones of “security belts” will be decided by Russia and Turkey.
The conflict that has been arising between Russian and Turkish forces put them at loggerheads directly as Turkey-backed artillery and a major amount of ground troops were dispatched to aid the rebels in the province against Moscow backed Syrian forces.
The crisis was already in the making for years, however, it escalated when 30 Syrian troops were killed in an airstrike organized by Turkey in Idlib. Since then, Turkey has been conducting a large number of airstrikes and ground assaults almost subverting Syria to surrender.
Among the rounds of soldiers killed on both sides, the events took notice on the international stage owing to a huge humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to exile their home, and their country.
