{"id":669323,"date":"2019-10-24T06:42:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T03:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/?p=669323"},"modified":"2019-10-24T06:42:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T03:42:25","slug":"putin-erdogan-nail-down-syria-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2019\/10\/24\/putin-erdogan-nail-down-syria-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin, Erdogan nail down Syria deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maxim A. Suchkov<\/span> October 22, 2019 <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Article Summary<\/div>\n
The Russian and Turkish presidents met for more than six hours to come up with an agreement on Syria, one that might survive.<\/div>\n
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<\/i> Sputnik\/Alexei Druzhinin\/Kremlin via REUTERS<\/div>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a news conference following their talks in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 22, 2019.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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MOSCOW \u2014\u00a0Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his summer residence of\u00a0Bocharov Ruchey in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Oct. 22.\u00a0This is\u00a0their\u00a0eighth meeting\u00a0this year.\u00a0Erdogan visited Russia four times this year: working visits on\u00a0Jan. 23 and April\u00a08; during the Astana\u00a0trio summit Feb. 14;\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>and to attend\u00a0the MARKS air show Aug. 27. Putin\u00a0visited Turkey only once in 2019.\u00a0On Sept. 16 Putin took part in another Astana group summit. The two also met at the G-20 summit in Osaka June 29, as well as a meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikstan June 15.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the two presidents also had seven meetings. Yet Putin visited Turkey three times, and Erdogan was in Russia once. The other three meetings took place on the margins of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, at the Astana group meeting in Tehran\u00a0and on the sidelines of the G-20 in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

Putin and Erdogan skipped the formalities\u00a0and, after a brief introductory exchange, got down to what Putin would describe as a \u201cbusiness-like and honest conversation.”\u00a0The two leaders negotiated one-on-one via a single interpreter. On a few occasions they\u00a0called some members of the delegation into the room for short consultations.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Turkey, Russia’s trademark policy is to tie any initiative in Syria to a broader bilateral development to enforce its negotiation position. The last time Putin was in Ankara, Russia expedited the S-400 delivery, which was originally scheduled for the spring of\u00a02020. Yet most recently, while focusing on Syria, Putin and Erdogan discussed prospects for increased cooperation in the military-technical area; boosting bilateral trade; and switching to payments in national currencies. Turkey also agreed to embrace Russia’s payment system, or Mir\u00a0\u2014\u00a0an alternative to credit cards\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to boost the flow of Russian tourists to the country.<\/p>\n

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More than six hours of talks resulted in an agreement that Erdogan hailed as \u201ca new stage\u201d in the Syrian conflict, a stage designed to bring peace.\u00a0The 10-point joint memorandum covers the sensitive issues\u00a0that both the Russians and the Turks have channeled to the other\u00a0since the Turkish incursion.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Russia secured Turkey’s respect for \u201cSyria\u2019s territorial integrity\u201d and for the \u201cpolitical unity\u201d of the country. Turkey also recognized the\u00a0Syrian Constitutional Committee as a key mechanism for the political process in the country. The committee is set to be formally launched next week in Geneva.<\/p>\n

Erdogan said he briefed Putin \u201cin detail\u201d about the Turkish operation \u2014 the Kremlin would also add that about the Turkish-American agreements \u2014 and was eloquent enough to convince Putin\u00a0that Operation Peace Spring doesn\u2019t seek a long-term occupation of Syria. Most importantly for Putin, however, was the basic recognition of the \u201cimportance\u201d of the Adana agreement and Russia\u2019s primacy in facilitating the process, as enshrined\u00a0in point four of the deal. This may not yet be a recognition that\u00a0the Adana agreement should be\u00a0the basis for the Syrian-Turkish rapprochement, but it is a vital step toward\u00a0it, just as Moscow wanted.<\/p>\n

Turkey, in turn, secured Russia\u2019s recognition of\u00a0the operation as a \u201clegitimate security concern\u201d of Ankara’s regarding\u00a0the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Moscow didn\u2019t challenge Turkey’s gains in the operation, and it also agreed to preserve the status quo created by the operation on the ground. This was meant to be an important sign of respect, both for Turkey\u2019s interests and for Erdogan\u2019s personal investment in\u00a0the offensive. Russia thus ensured \u2014 for the time being \u2014 that Turkey doesn\u2019t advance farther into Syria and uses the agreement with Moscow\u00a0\u2014 rather than its long-term military presence\u00a0\u2014 as a\u00a0guideline to settle the conflict.<\/p>\n

Point five\u00a0reads that, starting Oct. 23, Russian military police and the Syrian border guard will deploy\u00a0to the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border, beyond the Operation Peace Spring zone, to facilitate the withdrawal of YPG forces and heavy armaments, up\u00a0to 30 kilometers\u00a0deep into Syria. Then joint Russian-Turkish units will patrol the 10-kilometer\u00a0area to the west and east of the operation zone, except for\u00a0Qamishli, which is under the control of the Syrian army. All YPG forces are to withdraw\u00a0from Manbij and Tell\u00a0Rifaat.<\/p>\n

Those principles, though, are largely in line with the spirit if not the letter of the Adana agreement. Moscow deems this situation favorable, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Russia’s deployment of the military police has been a trademark of its conflict management solution in Syria. \u201cIn any awkward situation, deploy the military police,\u201d one could joke, if it were not such an effective tool for Moscow, be it in dealings between Israel and Iran, Iranian militias,\u00a0Sunni opposition groups and now with the YPG and the Turks.<\/p>\n

The key question here is whether\u00a0the deal over the withdrawal of the Kurdish forces was pre-negotiated between Russia and Damascus, on the one hand, and the Kurdish forces, on the other. The three have been spending a lot\u00a0of time lately at the Khmeimim air base, for some reason.<\/p>\n

Russia avoided labeling the YPG as terrorists to allow for flexibility in engagement with the Kurdish forces. In this sense, point two\u00a0is meant to vaguely address\u00a0the mutual commitment of Russia and Turkey to \u201cfighting terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations\u201d and \u201cconfronting separatist intentions on Syrian territory.\u201d The latter is in line with Moscow\u2019s own \u201cterritorial integrity for Syria\u201d red line, which Damascus supports. The point\u00a0allows Ankara and Moscow to interpret accordingly,\u00a0should a threat emerge.<\/p>\n

Similarly, point seven notes the Russian and Turkish commitment to \u201cpreventing any infiltration of terrorist elements.” This is something\u00a0each party can interpret through its own political and security lens, although it was likely Turkey’s\u00a0intent to single out Kurdish forces. Remarkably, in its own version of the statement, Russia used the acronym KOS, which, in Russian, stands for \u201cKurdish Self-Defense Units.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share the concern of the Turkish side over the rise of the threat of terrorism and the increase in ethnic tensions in this area. We believe\u00a0these contradictions and separatist moods have been fueled from the outside,\u201d Putin remarked, subtly poking the United States.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the parties could have reached a deal on Idlib,\u00a0but\u00a0it went unmentioned in the joint statement, though\u00a0Erdogan mentioned Idlib during the press conference as an agenda item. If such a deal was reached, it can be discerned from Moscow and Ankara’s actions in the next few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to this agreement, we won\u2019t allow for any separatist organizations to emerge on Syrian territories,” Erdogan said.\u00a0“Turkey and Russia will not allow it. Starting tomorrow, we will be implementing our project.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Found in:<\/span> Russia in Syria<\/div>\n
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Maxim A. Suchkov<\/span>, is\u00a0editor of Al-Monitor\u2019s Russia\u00a0\/\u00a0Mideast coverage. He is a non-resident expert at the Russian International Affairs Council and at the Valdai International Discussion Club. He was a Fulbright visiting fellow at\u00a0Georgetown\u00a0University\u00a0(2010-11) and\u00a0New York\u00a0University\u00a0(2015). On Twitter: @MSuchkov_ALM\u00a0Email:\u00a0msuchkov@al-monitor.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maxim A. Suchkov October 22, 2019 Article Summary The Russian and Turkish presidents met for more than six hours to come up with an agreement on Syria, one that might survive. Sputnik\/Alexei Druzhinin\/Kremlin via REUTERS Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a news conference following their talks in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4092,"featured_media":669324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[4836,9729],"class_list":["post-669323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-putin","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}