Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan strike ‘historic’ deal on Syria safe zone, with ceasefire extended for 150 hours

Russia and Turkey struck a deal on an operation to secure a buffer zone in northern Syria, including joint patrols and coordinated action with Syrian forces to remove Kurdish fighters from the area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from more than six hours of talks on Tuesday to announce the agreement, which they said would begin at noon on Wednesday.

“We’ve signed a historic memorandum with Putin for the territorial and political integrity of Syria and the return of refugees,” Erdogan said at a joint news conference in Russia’s Sochi.

They reached “crucial” decisions that will help “resolve the rather acute situation that has developed on the Syrian-Turkish border,” Putin said.

Russian military police and Syrian border guards will “facilitate the removal” of Kurdish YPG militia and their weapons to a distance of at least 30km (19 miles) from the border with Turkey within 150 hours, according to the agreement.

Turkish and Russian forces will then begin joint patrols to the west and east of Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring zone inside Syria to a depth of 10km (6 miles), the two presidents said in the accord.

Kurdish YPG fighters must also leave the Syrian frontier cities of Manbij and Tal Rifat, according to the joint memorandum. The existing situation in the Operation Peace Spring zone covering the border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain will be preserved to a depth of 32km (20 miles) inside Syria, it said.

The deal was reached as a ceasefire that Erdogan agreed on with US Vice-President Mike Pence last week after the withdrawal of American troops from Kurdish-held northern Syria is expected to expire at 10pm local time.

Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria is coming to an end as a result of the agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Russia and Turkey will establish a joint monitoring mechanism to ensure implementation of the accord, he said.

“We will work together with our Russian friends in projects to enable the voluntary return” of refugees to Syria, Erdogan said. “From now on, our main goal is to strengthen the environment of stability,” he said.

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Russia and Turkey have emerged as the main foreign players in Syria’s conflict, with Moscow’s position strengthened after US President Donald Trump announced this month he would be withdrawing American forces from the north of the country.

The announcement cleared the way for Turkey to launch a cross-border offensive on October 9 against the Kurdish YPG militia, viewed by Ankara as “terrorists” linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The assault sparked Western outrage and accusations of betrayal from the Kurds, whose frontline fighters were crucial in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Russia is a crucial ally of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and has demanded that Turkey respect the country’s territorial integrity. As the US troops began to withdraw last week, Russian forces moved in to support the Syrian army, whose help against Turkey was requested by the Kurds.

Erdogan said last week he was not bothered by the Damascus regime’s return as what mattered to Ankara was pushing back the Kurdish fighters from the proposed 32km (20 mile) safe zone.

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Assad said on Tuesday that defeating jihadists in Idlib is the key to ending the country’s eight-year-old civil conflict.

“The battle of Idlib is the basis for resolving chaos and terrorism in all other areas of Syria,” he said while visiting troops on the front line with jihadists in the town of Al-Hbeit in Idlib province.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse