Ankara urges Moscow to fulfill responsibilities in Idlib cease-fire deal

ANKARA－A Russian team visiting Ankara to discuss the Syrian government offensive in the northwestern Idlib region has left, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Tuesday, with no apparent agreement on how to halt clashes that killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a week.

The delegation held the first round of talks with Turkish government on Saturday and continued discussions over the recent escalation of tension in Idlib on Monday.

Turkey urged Russia to fulfill its responsibilities in the Astana process that aimed at a cease-fire in Idlib province of Syria, the Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.

The military attack carried out by Syrian government forces on Turkish observation points was strongly condemned, said a written statement released by Kalin's office, adding that the Turkish military would respond within the framework of the right of self-defense against the attack.

An attack by Syrian government forces killed five Turkish soldiers and injured five others in Idlib on Monday while talks between Turkish and Russian delegations were ongoing. A previous Syrian government attack on Turkish soldiers killed eight army personnel in Idlib last week.

Turkey has stressed to Russia that the attack against the Turkish soldiers was unacceptable, and that the Turkish army has responded in the harshest manner and will continue to retaliate, said the statement.

Turkey emphasized the need to stop these attacks which were contrary to the spirit of the Astana deal and violated the Sochi consensus, and said Russia, one of the guarantors of the agreement, should fulfill its responsibility, it added.

Ankara expressed its determination to respond and take every kind of measure against attacks which aim at harming the political process, said the statement.

Over the past two months, the Syrian army has launched a wide-scale offensive in the southern and eastern countryside of Idlib as well as in the southern countryside of Aleppo Province in a bid to open the Damascus-Aleppo strategic highway that connects the country's south with its north.

Xinhua - Reuters