Recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Erdogan discussed issues related to the coordination of military actions in the light of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.
US Withdrawal From Syria Will Be A Long, Complicated Process: Russia
According to the expert from the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the talks between Russian-Turkish top will focus on how the control will be carried out primarily in those territories that are now occupied by Syrian Kurds.
Erdogan, of course, is concerned about issues related to the north-eastern regions of Syria, adjacent to Turkey. From this point of view, Turkey really needs coordination here with other participants in the Syrian settlement and above all with Russia, which is not interested in the vacuum that is possible after the withdrawal of the US troops.
At present Turkey is negotiating the future of the northern and eastern regions of Syria simultaneously with the United States and Russia. Similar consultations intensified after the decision announced by US President Donald Trump on December 19 that led to the withdrawal of troops from the Arab Republic.
Over the past month, Ankara held a series of meetings with the Russians and the US allies in NATO, one of the key topics of which was the creation of a “security zone” in the northeast of the ATS.
Since the end of last year, Turkey has made it clear that ignoring its interests in Syria could lead to another military intervention by the Turkish army in the neighbouring country, whose territory remains under the control of the Kurdish militia.
Today’s meeting between Putin and Erdogan is intended to introduce certainty into the future plans of the Turkish side in the Syrian direction. The Turkish delegation, which arrived in Moscow on January 23, includes, in particular, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, and head of the National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan.
