Erdogan stated Turkey Wants No Aggravation within Russian Relations

Turkey does not intend to aggravate relations with Russia because of the situation in Syrian Idlib, President Tayyip Erdogan said. “We don’t need to enter into a conflict or a serious contradiction with Russia at this stage. We have common strategic projects such as Turkish Stream and Akkuyu NPP. It’s out of question that we abandon the S-400 air defense system The one who gets up angry will sit down to his own detriment,” the Sabah newspaper quoted Erdogan. At the same time, the President called “a clear violation” of the agreement with Russia on the de-escalation zone the incident with Turkish military in Idlib shelling. According to him, Ankara previously notified the Russian side about its military displacement. In addition, the Turkish leader emphasized that the military would not leave the observation posts in Idlib and would strengthen them. “We will not allow a new war and a new wave of refugees to arise. And we notified the Russian side of this,” he concluded. On the eve of Erdogan said that five Turkish soldiers and three civilians were killed in Idlib as a result of an air strike of the Syrian army. After that, Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar said that in response to the strike 76 Syrian soldiers were “neutralized”. Idlib Accords In May 2017, in Astana (now Nur-Sultan) Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to create four de-escalation zones in Syria. Three of them came under the control of Damascus in 2018. The fourth zone, located in the province of Idlib and parts of the neighboring provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo, is not yet occupied by government troops, most of it was captured by terrorists from Jebhat al-Nusra. In September 2018, Russia and Turkey in Sochi agreed to create a demilitarized zone in Idlib, where more than a dozen different units are located. The largest of them are the union of the pro-Turkish groups "National Front of Liberation" and "Jebhat al-Nusra", in total about 30 thousand militants.