Month: February 2020

Fears of an escalating conflict in Syria grew Friday as Turkish forces pounded Syria’s military in retaliation for the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers. Meanwhile, Russia’s and Turkey’s presidents spoke, as Ankara threatens to launch even more assaults on Russian-backed Syrian forces.”Turkish forces destroyed five Syrian regime choppers, 23 tanks, 10 armored vehicles, 23 howitzers, five ammunition trucks — as well as three ammunition depots, two equipment depots, a headquarters, and 309 regime troops,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters close to the Syrian-Turkish border.Ankara’s assault came in retaliation for an airstrike Turkey blamed on Syrian forces that killed 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria’s Idlib province on Thursday.The deadly airstrike followed Turkish forces backing Syrian rebels in an attack to recapture the strategically important town of Saraqeb. Idlib is the last rebel enclave, which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is vowing to retake.  FILE – Smoke billows over the town of Saraqeb in the eastern part of the Idlib province in northwestern Syria, following bombardment by Syrian government forces, Feb. 27, 2020.The Kremlin said the leaders agreed on the need for “additional measures” to normalize the situation, and that there was the “possibility” of a summit soon.U.S. President Donald Trump also spoke with Erdogan on Friday. In a statement, the White House said Trump condemned the attack on Turkish personnel in Syria and “reaffirmed his support for Turkey’s efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.”The statement added that Trump and Erdogan “agreed that the Syrian regime, Russia, and the Iranian regime must halt their offensive before more innocent civilians are killed and displaced.”Deaths of Turkish soldiersMoscow and Ankara are engaged in a blame game over the killing of the Turkish soldiers. The Russian defense ministry accused Turkey’s military of failing to inform Russian forces on the ground of the location of its soldiers.  “This attack occurred even though the locations of our troops had been coordinated with Russian officials in the field,” Turkish Defense Minister Akar asserted.”We fought Russia 16 times in the past, and we will do it again, our vengeance will be quite terrible,” Erdogan’s foreign affairs adviser, Mesut Casin, said in a television interview.Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, third right, attends a funeral ceremony for Halil Ibrahim Akkaya, one of Turkish soldiers killed in Syria, in Bahce, Osmaniye, Turkey, Feb. 28, 2020.The Turkish president himself has avoided wielding harsh rhetoric against Moscow, notes former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an analyst and host for Turkish online network Medyascope.”It should be emphasized we didn’t hear from Ankara that it was the Russian planes attacking the Turkish armed forces,” said Selcen. “Yet yes, there is no other possibility that the Russian air forces are the ones attacking the Turkish armed forces. The fact that Ankara doesn’t declare this officially means that they are trying to avoid an all-out breakdown with Moscow.”Russian and Turkish diplomats all week were engaged in efforts to end the violence in the Syrian city of Idlib. Moscow is expected to present again to Ankara its proposal of creating a narrow buffer zone in Idlib along Turkey’s border for rebels and their families to withdraw. But analysts say Ankara remains vehemently opposed.”The Syrian border with Turkey is still extremely porous, and there is no guarantee those people will stay there with Assad breathing down their necks,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “You are essentially condemning these people to an eternal life of joblessness which offers them no future. And what would you do if Assad tanks moved into these camps?”Refugees, migrantsWith Turkey already hosting over three and half million Syrians who fled the civil war, Erdogan has said his country can take no more.Migrants arrive with a dinghy accompanied by a Frontex vessel at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, Feb. 28, 2020.Idlib hosts over three million Syrians, the United Nations said this month. Nearly a million had been forced from their homes from recent fighting, many of whom are already on the Turkish border.  In a move seen as putting pressure on the European Union, the spokesman of the ruling AKP Omer Celik declared Friday that Turkey is “no longer able to hold refugees” seeking to enter Europe. Local media reported free buses were being provided to take people to the border or sea crossing points to Greece.  Hundreds of refugees and migrants have already moved to Greek and Bulgarian borders.Turkey Threatens Europe with Refugees After 33 Troops Killed Presidents of Turkey and Russia have spoken by phone, a day after 33 Turkish troops were killed in Syrian government airstrikes in country’s flashpoint northwestern province of IdlibWestern support?Ankara is looking to its western allies to support its forces in Syria. “The international community must act to protect civilians and impose a no-fly-zone,” tweeted Altun.Turkey called for an emergency meeting of NATO Friday, but while receiving words of solidarity, no concrete measures of support were agreed on.Erdogan has recently called for the deployment of American Patriot missile system to offer protection for Syrian civilians and Turkish forces on the ground in Idlib.But experts warn that there appears little support for any action that brings the risk of a military confrontation with Russian forces. Underlining Moscow’s commitment to Damascus, Friday saw two of Russia’s warships pass through Istanbul en route to Syria to reinforce its Syrian military presence.VOA’s Steve Herman contributed to this report.
 
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The situation in Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib region remains explosive, following the killing there of more than 30 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike by Russia-backed Syrian government forces. Bracing against possible Turkish countermeasures, Russia is moving two warships toward the eastern Mediterranean.Meanwhile, NATO is urging Damascus to “respect international law,” and cease airstrikes over civilian areas in Idlib. Turkey also has sent scores of Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees to its border with Greece in an apparent effort to pressure the EU to support its position in the northern Syrian province.NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg offered the group’s “condolences” to member state Turkey in a press conference Friday, after an urgent meeting requested by Ankara following the deaths of 33 Turkish soldiers in Idlib. Stoltenberg stopped short, however, of offering any NATO military support to Ankara.”We stated very clearly that we call on Russia and the [Syrian leader Bashar al-] Assad regime to stop the … indiscriminate air attacks and also to engage and support U.N.-led efforts to find a lasting political, peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria,” Stoltenberg said.Arab media showed video of two Russian naval frigates equipped with Caliper missiles as they were crossing the Dardanelles, on their way to waters off Syria. At the same time, a Russian military delegation met with their Turkish counterparts in Ankara Friday to try to defuse tensions.Russia claims that Turkish forces were working alongside “terrorist groups” in Idlib province when they were hit by a Syrian government airstrike. Turkey denies the claim. The Russian Foreign Ministry repeated Friday that “terrorist groups will not be tolerated” in Idlib. 
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REYHANLI, Turkey  – The presidents of Turkey and Russia spoke over the phone on Friday, a day after Syrian government airstrikes killed 33 Turkish troops, significantly ratcheting up tensions between Ankara and Moscow. It was the highest number of Turkish soldiers killed in a single day since Ankara first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2016.
The development was the most serious escalation in the conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces and raised the prospect of all-out war with millions of Syrian civilians trapped in the middle.
NATO envoys held emergency talks at the request of Turkey, a NATO member, and scores of migrants began converging on Turkey’s border with Greece seeking entry into Europe after Turkey said it was no longer able to hold refugees.'' Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country already hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, has long threatened to "open the gates'' for millions of refugees eager to flee to Europe unless more international support was provided.
Refugees, meanwhile, headed to the land border with Greece, taking minibuses and taxis from Istanbul. Dozens waited at the Turkish side of the border gate at Pazarkule and dozens of others were in no-man's land between the two countries.
Others headed to Turkey's west coast to attempt to reach the Greek islands, a short distance away. Several rubber dinghy boats with groups of people clambering aboard were seen on Friday, heading for the island of Lesbos after apparently setting off from Ayvacik, northwest Turkey in broad daylight.
A Greek police official said dozens of people had gathered on the Turkish side of the land border in Greece's northeastern Evros region, shouting "open the borders." Greek police and military border patrols were deployed on the Greek side to prevent anyone trying to cross without authorization.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press on the record.
At one point, Greek police said they used tear gas and flash grenades to move migrants back, after an estimated 450 people gathered at the Turkish side of the Kastanies border crossing. The crossing was closed temporarily.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy warned the movement of migrants to the West could continue if the situation in Idlib deteriorated.
"Some asylum seekers and migrants in our country, worried about developments, have begun to move towards our western borders," he said. "If the situation worsens this risk will continue to increase.'' However, he added that there was "no change'' in Turkey's migration policy.
Bulgaria said it was also beefing up security on its border with Turkey to counter a possible migrant influx, deploying "army units, national guard and border police staff," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said after a Cabinet meeting.There is a real threat” of a new migrant wave from Turkey, he said.
The latest crisis stems from a Russian-backed Syrian government military campaign to retake Syria’s Idlib province, which is the last opposition-held stronghold in Syria. The offensive, which began Dec. 1, has triggered the largest single wave of displacement in Syria’s nine-year war, sending nearly 950,000 people fleeing to areas near the Turkish border for safety. Ankara, the Syrian rebels’ last supporter, sealed its borders in 2015 and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees.
Turkey has had 54 soldiers killed in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province since the beginning of February, including the latest fatalities, and now feels the need to respond strongly.
Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling party, said Turkey was “no longer able to hold refugees” following the Syrian attack – reiterating a standing threat by Ankara.
The Thursday night attack in Idlib sharply raises the risk of direct military confrontation between Turkey and Russia, although Turkish officials blamed Syria, not Russia, for the attack. The Turkish stock market fell 10% in the wake of the airstrike, while the Turkish lira slid against the dollar.
Turkey is a main backer of the Syrian opposition while Russia has been giving military support to the weeks-long Syrian government offensive in Idlib.
The Kremlin said Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed implementing agreements in Idlib.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Moscow, said Russia remains committed to the agreements reached by Putin and his Turkish counterpart. Commenting on the deaths of the Turkish troops in Idlib, Lavrov said that if the agreements between the two countries’ armies – “including sharing of accurate coordinates of the Turkish troops’ location” – had been implemented in full, “such tragedies could have been avoided.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Turkish troops that came under fire in Idlib were deployed among “terrorist battle formations.” They were in the area of Behun, and according to coordinates given to Russia’s Reconciliation Center in Syria, “there were no Turkish military units in the area … and there weren’t supposed to be,” the ministry said.
Russian air forces did not carry out airstrikes in the area, the statement added, and after receiving information about Turkish casualties, the Russian side took all the necessary measures in order for the Syrian forces to stop the fire.''
Meanwhile, two Russian frigates carrying cruise missiles have been deployed to Syria, Russian navy officials said Friday. Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich of the Black Sea Fleet are en route to the Syrian coast with Kalibr cruise missiles on board. Both warships previously took part in Russia's offensive in Syria.
Syrian state news agency, SANA, carried a brief report saying Turkey has acknowledged its forces were killedin operations of the Syrian Arab Army against a terrorist organization,” adding that Syrian troops at the time were repelling attacks by “terrorist groups backed by Turkey.”
Erdogan held a six-hour emergency security meeting in Ankara late on Thursday, the Anadolu news agency reported. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevult Cavusoglu spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg by telephone while Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, who plays a senior role in foreign affairs, spoke to U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said after the attack on Turkish troops, Turkey’s armed forces shelled Syrian army positions in different parts of Idlib, killing at least 16 soldiers. It gave no further details and there was no comment from Syria’s state media.
In recent weeks, Turkey has sent thousands of troops as well as tanks and other equipment to Idlib. As recently as Wednesday, Erdogan gave the Syrian government until the end of February to pull back from its recent advances or face Turkish “intervention”.
Turkey provides some of the militants with direct support and has accused Syria of breaking a 2018 agreement to reduce the conflict in Idlib. Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad have said Turkey has failed to honor a deal to separate extremist groups from other fighters in the region.
On Thursday, the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town from government forces, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.
Despite losing the town of Saraqeb, Assad’s forces made major gains to the south. Assad now controls almost the entire southern part of Idlib province after capturing more than 20 villages Thursday, state media and opposition activists said. It’s part of a weekslong campaign backed by Russian air power into Syria’s last rebel stronghold. 
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Refugees can now gain access to Europe through Turkey.Turkey shares borders with two European Union countries, Greece and Bulgaria.Turkey’s security forces have been ordered not to stop the exodus, at least temporarily reversing an arrangement made with the EU in 2016.The decision comes after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian government forces in northern Syria’s Idlib region Thursday.About 1 million Syrian refugees have been displaced and have gathered near the border with Turkey since December.Turkey already houses nearly 4 million Syrian refugees.Early Friday, close to 300 migrants began the trek to Turkey’s Edirne province on the Greek border.Media reports said that in addition to the Syrians making the trip, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were also part of the group.Refugees are also heading toward Ayvacik, where they hope to travel by boat to the Greek island of Lesbos. 
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Two Baltic countries have reported their first case of coronavirus, each with mild symptoms.Lithuania confirmed its first case Friday, detected in a woman who returned home after attending a conference with colleagues in Italy’s northern city of Verona.The 39-year-old woman has mild symptoms and has been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai following her return Monday, Lithuanian Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said at a late night press conference, adding that passengers seated beside the woman on the plane and in adjacent rows are going to undergo tests for the virus.On Thursday, Estonia reported its first coronavirus case, a day after a man returned to the county from a business trip in his homeland, Iran.Estonian Social Affairs Minister Tanel Kiik told public broadcaster ERR that the man is currently hospitalized.“The person, a permanent resident of Estonia who is not a citizen, arrived in Estonia on Wednesday evening,” Kiik said.According to local media, the man contacted Estonian health authorities himself upon his arrival in Tallinn by bus from the Latvian capital Riga, where he flew in from Istanbul.Italy and Iran are among the countries with the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases outside Asia.
 
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In an effort to end “period poverty,” the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday moved Scotland a step closer to becoming the first country in the world to to provide free sanitary pads and tampons in public places.The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill passed 112-0, with one abstention. If the bill moves past the second phase, where legislators propose amendments, free menstrual products will be available in places such as pharmacies, community centers and youth clubs.Menstrual products are currently taxed as luxury items.The cost of the legislation is estimated to be $31 million a year. Scotland has already made strides in ending the 5% “tampon tax.”In 2018, the country created a national policy that ensured free pads and tampons in schools and universities. The European Union plans to remove a sales tax on menstrual products by 2022 and let individual countries decide the prices.“(This) is a milestone moment for normalizing menstruation in Scotland, and sending out that real signal to people in this country about how seriously parliament takes gender equality,” the bill’s sponsor, Monica Lennon, said during Parliament’s debate. “We are changing the culture, and it’s really exciting that other countries right around the world are watching very closely to see what we do.”
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