Turkish-Russian agreement on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in the Idlib province

ARK News: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the agreement with Turkey on the establishment of a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province of Idlib along the line of contact between the Assad militants and armed groups

Putin after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi, yesterday said that "During the meeting, we discussed this situation in Idlib in detail and we decided to establish a demilitarized zone at a depth of 15-20 kilometers along the line of contact between the armed opposition and the regime's supporters by 15. Next October. "

Putin explained that the demilitarized zone will be evacuated from all extremist armed groups, including the " Al Nosra Front ".
He said heavy weapons, tanks, rocket launchers, and all opposition groups were to be withdrawn by October 10 at the suggestion of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He confirmed that the Turkish forces and the Russian military police would carry out the surveillance mission in the region.

Putin also revealed that the Turkish side proposed to resume transportation through Aleppo - Lattakia and Aleppo - Hama road before the end of 2018.

Putin stressed that "the important thing is that Russia and Turkey are determined to continue to use the path of Astana with all its strength and the chances of finding long-term political solutions in Geneva under the auspices of the UN, and we will continue to work on forming the constitutional committee of representatives of the Assad regime, the opposition, and civil society, adding that the goal is to ensure the start of its work as soon as possible., .

He added that Russia and Turkey have confirmed their intention to continue fighting terrorism, saying that the implementation of the agreements reached will give additional impetus to the process of political settlement in Syria, and intensify work on the Geneva platform and will contribute to the return of peace to the Syrian territory.

Erdogan said that our agreements have avoided Idlib a humanitarian disaster

For his part, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the agreements which reached with Vladimir Putin will allow avoiding a humanitarian disaster in Idlib.

He said that "Turkey will strengthen its crossings in the area of reducing the escalation (Idleb). In this context, we will prevent a humanitarian disaster, which would occur as a result of combat operations."

He added that "The opposition that controls some of the territories will remain in them, but with Russia, we will make every effort to remove extremist groups from those territories".

Erdogan pointed out that Turkey was "doing everything in its power" to resolve the issue of Idleb from the beginning, expressing his hope for a political settlement in Syria. He said: "We hope that there will be constitutional reform and then elections so that the Syrian people will remain in a democratic system," adding that the decisions will benefit Syria.

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