Russia, Turkey Decide On Joint Syria Patrols After Putin-Erdogan Meeting – Radio Free Europe
- Erdogan says deal reached with Russia for Kurdish YPG to withdraw beyond 30 km into Syria from border within 150 hours beginning tomorrow at noon; Russian FM Lavrov confirms cease-fire extensions after Sochi summit.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will continue with a military operation in northeastern Syria “with greater determination” if Kurdish fighters fail to meet the commitments of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.Ā
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to conduct joint military patrols in northeast Syria and have given Kurdish fighters a new deadline to clear out of the area just hours before the expiration of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.
Russian and Turkish officials said a new cease-fire, set to last 150 hours, is planned to begin at midday on October 23 and that Kurdish militias would be required to clear out of a 32-kilometer buffer zone inside Syria along a 120-kilometer border region with Turkey.
The decisions were announced following a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders at the Russia Black Sea resort of Sochi.
A five-day, U.S.-brokered truce expired on October 22 and it was unclear what would occur until the new truce takes effect the following day.
Erdogan later claimed that Washington had not fully completed promises it made in the truce deal and said Turkey was ready to take necessary steps, without being specific.
Before the expiration, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the United States had a 90-minute deadline to “fulfill its obligations” on Syria as part of the original cease-fire, without providing specifics.
Erdogan and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Turkish and Russian troops would begin joint patrols in Syria in a buffer zone some 10 kilometers deep from the Turkish border, but that Turkey’s self-declared “terror-free safe zone” would extend some 20 kilometers deeper into Syria.
“Within 150 hours from noon, October 23, YPG terrorists and their weapons will be taken outside of 30 kilometers,” Erdogan announced, referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia that Ankara says is associated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s.
The YPG was instrumental in the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria earlier this year together with U.S. forces.
The YPG’s fortifications and positions “will be destroyed,” Erdogan announced, adding that they would vacate positions in the towns of Tal Rifat and Manbij.
The comments come after a senior U.S. official told news agencies that U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish forces had completed their withdrawal from the border area in northern Syria that Ankara wants to be cleared of Kurdish fighters.”
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