Damascus demands ‘immediate & unconditional’ pullout of Turkish troops from northwest Syria
Syria demands an immediate pullout of Turkish troops, whose deployment to Idlib province amounts to “flagrant aggression,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said as quoted by SANA.
“The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the incursion of Turkish military units in the Idlib Province, which constitutes to blatant aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and flagrant violation of international law,” an official source in the foreign ministry told Sana news agency.
“The Syrian Arab Republic demands an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Syrian territory,” the source stated.
According to the foreign ministry representative, the move by Ankara was an “aggression” which “the Turkish regime can’t justify in any way.”
The source also dismissed Turkey’s attempts to link the move to the implementation of the Astana agreements on the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria.
The incursion was, in fact, a “departure” from the deal, reached by Russia, Turkey, and Iran in the Kazakh capital, he said.
On Thursday, Turkey deployed a convoy of around 30 military vehicles into Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province.
Turkish military forces are tasked with monitoring one of four de-escalations zones, created in the country under the agreement between Moscow, Ankara, and Tehran, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
However, Erdogan stressed that Turkey was implementing its “own game plan, step by step” in Syria, adding that “we are not bounded by just resistance or defense.”
