The cease-fire in Idlib, Erdogan lost.
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Roshan Amiri
- . March 9, 2020
- . Update: March 9, 2020 12:24 pm
The French newspaper Le Monde described the agreement signed between Moscow and Ankara on Idlib, Syria, as “weak”, stressing that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out of it as a loser.
The newspaper said, in an article published by it entitled “The fragile cease-fire in Idlib”, that Erdogan came out loser, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to achieve everything that is in the interest of the Syrian government.
It emphasized that Erdogan could not dictate his terms to Putin, and that the only gain he obtained was a ceasefire to reduce the bleeding of his forces and militia.
Le Monde refuted the points of agreement, describing it as a setback for Erdogan and his militants, and that it might not abide by him after he left without much gain.
Idlib currently represents a stronghold of terrorist groups and pro-Turkish militias, and is subject to the de-escalation agreement reached by Moscow and Ankara in the Astana 2018 dialogue.
With the help of the Russian air support, the Syrian army was able to recover dozens of towns in the province in the past weeks, its largest advance in years.
The Syrian army also succeeded in controlling Turkish military observation posts in Idlib, destroying military equipment and machinery and killing soldiers and their loyalists.
Turkey and Russia reached a ceasefire agreement that Ankara and its terrorists have violated dozens of times.
The French newspaper explained the gains obtained by Russian President Vladimir Putin through the agreement.
Among these gains that Russia obtained from the agreement was the evacuation of a 12 km security corridor along the strategic road M4, which links Latakia and northern Syria.
The newspaper pointed out that the terrorists were controlling this vital road, and under the agreement will be evacuated and placed under Russian-Turkish control.
The newspaper also made it clear that Russia has permanently refused to talk about the fate of the M5 highway, which links Damascus to Aleppo (the country’s commercial capital) and stressed its control.
“This path is necessary for the Syrian government to strengthen the process of regaining control of the country,” Le Monde quoted a Middle East expert at the Russian Council for International Affairs, adding, “Not to touch on that point in the agreement is evidence that the Kremlin intends to firmly control this path.” .
In early March, Russian military police deployed massive forces in the strategic city of Saraqib, located at the crossroads of the M4 and M5 highways, to counter any Turkish attempt to control them.
“Le Monde” believes that this agreement constitutes a setback for Erdogan, who believes that his main demands have been ignored, explaining that “there is nothing to say about the fate of the Turkish monitoring centers surrounded by the Syrian government.”
It explained that the Syrian government had not lost anything from this agreement, and that it retained possession of the newly recovered lands after rejecting Ankara’s request to retract the Syrian army.
In another report, Le Monde considered that the Idlib battle is very important for the future of Syria and the region, explaining that although the ceasefire was negotiated last March 5, to try to preserve civilians, the situation is still very tense.
