Russia ‘surprised by Turkey's possible plan of new op in Syria’

The Russian military says it has been surprised by Turkey’s likely plan to conduct yet another military operation in northern Syria, stressing that such a move “only escalates the situation” in an already volatile region.

“The Russian Defense Ministry was surprised to hear Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s statement about Russia’s alleged failure to fulfill its promises, as well as his threats about an operation in northern Syria,” said Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, on Tuesday.

His remarks came a day after Cavusoglu said Ankara would launch a new military operation in northeast Syria if the area was not cleared of Kurdish militants. The Turkish minister also said at the time that Moscow had allegedly not done what had been required under a bilateral agreement on October 22. Turkey had halted its operation as part of that deal.

Cavusoglu also called on Moscow to do what was necessary.

“If we do not achieve any result, as we had started the operation [before]... we will do whatever is necessary [in northern Syria],” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the state-run Turkish Anadolu news agency.

Turkish army forces on October 9 launched a cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria in a declared attempt to clear members of the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group, from a 32-kilometer “safe zone” in border areas.

Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in the Anatolian country since 1984.

Thirteen days into the operation, Turkey and Russia reached an agreement under which YPG militants would pull back 30 kilometers south of Turkey’s border with Syria, and security forces from Turkey and Russia would carry out joint patrols in the area to prevent the militants from reemerging there.

Konashenkov on Tuesday, however, said that due to “a range of measures implemented” by Moscow, “it was possible to significantly stabilize the situation.”

Referring to Cavusoglu’s comments, he also stressed that the Turkish foreign minister’s “call for military action can only escalate the situation in northern Syria rather than sort things out in the way set out in a joint memorandum signed by the presidents of Russia and Turkey.”

The Syrian government has strongly condemned the Turkish offensive as an act of aggression.

The Turkish military has previously launched two cross-border incursions into northern Syria — in 2016 and in 2018.

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