Syria, ceasefire agreement between Putin and Erdogan

Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Thursday with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan over a potential ceasefire in northern Syria.

Putin said the situation in Idlib province, where their armies are facing off in a war that has displaced nearly a million people in three months, had become so tense it required one-on-one talks. Erdogan said he hoped the meeting would agree measures to ease the conflict.

Turkey, which has the second largest army in the transatlantic NATO alliance, has funnelled troops and equipment into the region in recent weeks to resist the push by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Turkey also wants to avoid a wave of refugees over its southern border.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot handle more. To extract more funding and support from Europe over Idlib, Ankara said it would not abide by a 2016 deal in which it stopped migrants crossing into the European Union in return for billions of euros in aid.

A Turkish security official said overnight clashes were “low in intensity for the first time in a while” ahead of the Moscow meeting, but Idlib residents reported heavy shelling by Turkish troops and air strikes by Russian and Syrian forces. The fighting, which raised the prospect of a direct clash between Russia and Turkey, has killed 60 Turkish troops in the region since last month and reportedly over a dozen civilians.

The conflict sparked what the United Nations says may be the worst humanitarian crisis in a nine-year war that has driven millions from their homes and killed hundreds of thousands.

SOURCE (REUTERS)