Turkey told Moscow no new Syria operation planned: TASS

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Nov. 20 that Ankara had assured Moscow that it did not plan to launch a new military operation in Syria despite earlier comments, the TASS news agency reported.

Lavrov also said that the withdrawal of the Protection Units (YPG) militants in northern Syria was almost complete.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency on Nov. 18 cited Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu as saying Ankara would launch a new military operation in northeast Syria if the area was not cleared of the YPG.

Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization due to it being the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.

Çavuşoğlu on Nov. 18 criticized the United States and Russia over separate agreements Ankara reached with them regarding the situation in Syria. The Turkish minister said that Washington and Moscow had not done what was required under agreements that halted a Turkish offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group that is led by the YPG, in northeastern Syria last month.

The deals stipulated that the YPG would be removed from a swathe of land bordering Turkey in northeastern Syria.

Çavuşoğlu called on Washington and Moscow to do what is necessary under the deals.

“If we do not obtain a result, we will do what is necessary, just as we launched the operation after trying with the U.S.,” Çavusoğlu said, referring to work with Washington to remove the YPG from the area before Turkey launched its cross-border incursion on Oct. 9.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Nov. 19 it was “bewildered” by Çavuşoğlu’s statement accusing Russia of failing to fulfill its agreement on Syria as well as a Turkish pledge to conduct a new military operation in northern areas if the area was not cleared of the YPG.

“Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu’s statement about Russia’s alleged non-fulfillment of its commitments, as well as the threat to unleash a military operation in northern Syria, was met with bewilderment by the Russian Ministry of Defense,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Konashenkov said that Russia was puzzled by Çavuşoğlu’s statement on several different levels and that Moscow had carried out in full its obligations under the deal struck by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Thanks to a range of measures implemented by the Russian Federation, it was possible to significantly stabilize the situation,” Konashenkov said.

“The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry’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,” Konashenkov added.

He listed areas where he thought Russia had helped bring about real progress, including quickly separating conflicting sides and conducting joint patrols with the Turkish armed forces.

Moscow is in the process of deploying more Russian military police to northeast Syria, setting up field hospitals for civilians, distributing humanitarian aid and rebuilding infrastructure, he said.