Tensions Rise Between Turkey and Syria in the Idlib Province

Turkey has sent heavy machinery with 150 carrying vehicles towards Syria. According to the Turkish media, the equipment has been sent to the Reyhanli province, bordering the Syrian conflict zones. The equipment includes armored personnel carriers, tanks and movable arterially weapons.     

Turkey sent the equipment in the Idlib province to solidify its ‘managing’ positions in the so-called ‘de-escalation zone’. Turkish government demands that the Syrian National Guard pull out its forces from the ‘de-escalation zone’.   

In May of 2017, with the agreement of Turkey, Russia and Iran, the ‘de-escalation zone’ was set up in Syria, running across the Turkish border. In 2018, parts of the Zone transferred into the control area of Damascus. Also, in 2018, Russia and Turkey agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in the Idlib province. Assads regime, backed by Russian guns now wants to take back control of the Idlib province. Turkey is siding with the Syrian rebels, who are concentrated in the Idlib province specifically.

In the wake of this conflict in Northern Syria, the Syrian Parliament has recognized the Armenian Genocide. The actions committed by the Ottoman Empire during WWI, by which 1.3 million Armenians were slaughtered, has been condemned by the Syrian administration.

“This is a picture of hypocrisy on the part of a regime that has for years committed any kind of massacre on its own people… which has displaced millions and which is well known for its use of chemical weapons,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

By B.Alexishvili