Turkey rejects Syria accusations over Idlib deal

Turkey has rejected Syrian government accusation that it is not meeting its obligations under an agreement to create a demilitarised zone around the opposition-held Idlib region.

Yesterday, Syrian state news agency SANA quoted Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem as saying: “The terrorists still exist with their heavy arms in this region and this is an indicator of Turkey’s unwillingness to fulfil its obligations.”

The Sochi deal, finalised between opposition backer Turkey and regime ally Russia, was credited with preventing a full-scale offensive in the northern province, home to some three million people. It stipulated the creation of a buffer zone, with the withdrawal of heavy weaponry by the opposition by a deadline last month.

However Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters earlier today that the agreement was continuing as planned: “There are currently no issues in implementing the memorandum… Everything is going as planned.”

READ: Turkish forces bombarded Syrian Kurdish YPG militia positions east of Euphrates

Turkey had initially struggled to persuade opposition groups to abide by the deal, amid growing resistance after the terms of the agreement became apparent, including the fact that the proposed buffer zone would be entirely absorbed by opposition-held territory. However eventually Hayaat Tahrir Al-Shaam, the biggest opposition group in the north, signalled its acceptance of the deal but added that it would still seek to provide security for people in the area it controls.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey was doing its best to fulfil difficult obligations in Idlib, but that “not everything was going as it was planned”. Russia did not see a threat that the agreement would fail, he added.

However, reports from the ground indicate that violations of the agreement have taken place on the part of the Syrian regime and its allies, with the bombardment of the province continuing. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, since the 17 September, areas in the vicinity of Morek, Lahaya, Atshan and Al-Tamanah in the countryside of Hama and Idlib, have been shelled over 100 times.

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Last week at least 12 people were killed in the airstrikes in the demilitarised zone, with dozens more wounded. On Sunday, the regime also bombed the headquarters of the Turkey-backed opposition coalition, the National Liberation Front (NLF) during the visit of senior Ahrar Al-Shaam commander Jaber Basha. He managed to escape unharmed.

READ: Iran began withdrawing its fighters from northern Syria

The Assad regime has also previously stated that in the view of the Syrian government the ceasefire deal is a “temporary one“, and that the government’s objective to control all of Syria remains the same.

On Saturday, Russia and Turkey, alongside Germany and France, convened at a summit in Istanbul to discuss the situation in Syria, with all sides stressing the importance of arriving at a lasting ceasefire.

“Russia and Turkey have negotiated an agreement that must be strictly implemented. Assurances were made on this point… We will all be extremely vigilant to ensure that these commitments are met and that the ceasefire is stable and sustainable,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters.

“We are counting on Russia to exert a very clear pressure on the [Syrian] regime, which very clearly owes it its survival.”

Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for the convening of a constitutional committee by the end of the year, according to their joint communique.

Erdogan told reporters that should be done “as soon as possible”, adding he hoped it would be before the end of the year.