The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Sunday published statements from both the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front and the jihadist group Hurras al-Din concerning the deal struck between Ankara and Moscow.
The National Liberation Front called the deal “a great effort and obvious victory for Turkish diplomacy”, while Hurras al-Din, a group which broke away from the dominant jihadist alliance Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, branded it “a conspiracy by the forces of international evil and infidelity against the jihadist project”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on September 17 for talks on the fate of Idlib.
Russia, the Syrian regime’s main military backer, has helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad retake the rebel-held suburbs around Damascus and in the country’s south.
Turkey meanwhile has long called for Assad’s removal and has backed the armed opposition, which has withdrawn to its final holdout in Idlib.
A Russian-backed offensive on the province, which borders Turkey, had appeared imminent ahead of Monday’s summit. Now Putin and Erdogan have agreed to establish a “demilitarized zone” some 15-20 kilometers deep along the line of contact between the armed opposition and regime troops by October 15.
Heavy weapons are to be withdrawn from the area and Russian and Turkish troops will jointly patrol the buffer zone. Jihadist rebels linked to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – led by Al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria – must withdraw, the leaders said.
In its statement, published by SOHR, the National Liberation Front said: “Our people in the Syrian north have received, with a great satisfaction, the news of reaching a Turkish-Russian agreement in Sochi which stopped an imminent Russian offensive which would result in the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the modern age.”
“We in the National Liberation Front appreciate this great effort and obvious victory for the Turkish diplomacy, which defended our issue and made us a part of its national security, amid the international community’s inaction to support the Syrian people,” the statement said.
“We particularly thank the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his hard efforts and persistent work on preventing this unfair war,” it added.
However, the group also shared its “mistrust of the Russian enemy” for breaking past deals and for “carrying out massacres, war crimes, and forcible displacement against our civilian people under fabricated claims and pretexts”.
“We will never give up our weapons, land, or revolution,” the statement added.
Jihadist groups have not welcomed the deal. SOHR earlier reported that Hurras al-Din, Ansar al-Tawhid, Ansar al-Din, Ansar Allah, al-Furqan Gathering and Jund al-Quqaz, along with other jihadist factions operating within Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, have all refused to withdraw from the buffer zone – nor will they part with their weapons.
In its statement, also published by SOHR on Sunday, Hurras al-Din said “the forces of international evil and infidelity joined to terminate the jihadist project”.
“All of this took place under the umbrella of decreasing the escalation and then they started successive steps starting with what they call fighting terrorism, separating the moderate opposition from the terrorist opposition, demanding a buffer zone, and the disarmament in planned steps, in order to terminate this holy jihad,” Hurras al-Din said in its statement.
“We have not fought and taken up arms to remove a tyrant to be replaced then by another tyrant,” it added.
“We call on the sincere Mujahedeen not to waste their jihad, their land, or their weapons and to be aware of their enemies’ wiliness, as they will only accept those who have been disengaged from their religion and jihad.”
Some three million people remain inside Idlib. Before the Sochi agreement, Syrian and Russian planes carried out multiple sorties, striking alleged rebel targets.
The UN has warned any assault on Idlib could lead to “the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century”.
