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Turkey
Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a trilateral meeting on Syria in Sochi, Russia on February 14, 2019. (AFP)
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey are to meet in Ankara on Monday to tackle Syrian regime attacks on rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib and the “voluntary” return of millions of Syrian refugees, according to the Turkish Presidency office.
“The 5th Trilateral Summit in Astana [talk] format […] aims to evaluate developments in Syria, especially in Idlib, to end the conflict environment, to provide the necessary conditions for the voluntary repatriation of refugees and to consult the joint steps to be taken in the future in order to establish a permanent political solution,” read a Turkish Presidency statement on Saturday.
The summit will be a follow up to the last few years of talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, where multiple rounds of talks between the three countries have so far been conducted.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are to exchange views on both bilateral relations and international developments, according to the statement.
Rouhani arrived in Ankara late on Sunday. In remarks made before his departure, he stressed the importance of Syrian crisis discussion for regional security, adding that the Astana talks have so far been constructive.
Although President Bashar al-Assad’s army holds sway of most parts of Syria, Rouhani said, he stressed the need to fight the remaining presence of terrorism in Idlib, reported IRNA.
The summit takes place amid heated clashes between Syrian regime forces and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in Idlib and elsewhere in northwestern Syria. The Syrian Army, backed by Russia and Iran, has made gains in areas previously held by the rebels.
Turkey has 12 observation points in Idlib, established to prevent fighting between regime forces and the rebels which were targeted by Assad forces during their offensives against the rebels.
Turkish President has warned multiple times against Syrian attacks on their troops in the country.
He told Reuters on Friday that “the moment that the regime messes with our observation posts, if there is any attack, then things will take a very different direction,” he said. “We will not hold back like we are doing now. We will take any necessary steps.”
The summit also comes weeks after Erdogan and Putin agreed to “normalize” the situation in Syria.
It is not clear if the summit will tackle the Kurdish issue in the country, with the Syrian government threatened to attack Kurdish forces in northeast Syria in a letter to the UN and UNSC on late Sunday.
Turkey, currently home to 3.6 million Syrian refugees, has already begun sending back thousands of refugees to areas under the control of its Syrian proxies. It plans to return a million more via a northern Syrian "peace corridor," as agreed to in its safe zone agreement with the US last month.
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