Russian forces patrol Syrian-Turkish border

Russian military police have begun to patrol the security zone in northern Syria in accordance with a memorandum of cooperation that Russia signed with Turkey, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Russia and signed the memorandum on joint actions in northeastern Syria on Tuesday.

According to the document, as of noon on Wednesday, the Russian military police and Syrian Border Guards were monitoring the withdrawal of Kurdish military forces to 30 kilometers from the border. Russia and Turkey were to begin the joint patrolling of the area 150 hours later.

United States President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a "big success", and said his administration was lifting sanctions it had imposed on Turkey after it launched an offensive against Syrian Kurds earlier this month.

"The memorandum entered into force today at noon," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin at a news conference.

"It has no expiration date, which means that so far, the zone will function without deadlines. As for the laws active in the zone, I think that any Syrian territory must fall under national law," Vershinin said.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian military police arrived at the northern Syrian city of Kobane earlier on Wednesday, and began to patrol the approved area in the border region.

The ministry said in a statement that the Russian military also met with local government officials in Kobane to discuss the detailed implementation of the memorandum.

It did not reveal details of Russia's first patrol in the border region, but published a map of the Russian patrol zone in Syria.

The map shows the positions of the Syrian Border Guards along the border, the zone of withdrawal of the Kurdish forces and the borders of Operation Peace Spring, the code name of the Turkish offensive into northeastern Syria against the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the "safe zone" area was calm on Wednesday. But explosions hit various parts of Syria's northeast, including the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli and the town of Suluk in the Tal Abyad region near Turkey's border, Agence France-Presse reported.

Yin Gang, a researcher at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Russian mediation in the Turkish-Syrian border issue could be positive and effective.

"Russia has played a relatively fair role, and the related parties would be more willing to listen (to it) as Russia does not have interests to pursue in northern Syria," he said.

Yin said that Russia's actions would be able to prevent Turkey from making further attacks in Syria, and avoid a long-term occupation of northern Syria.

"Turkey is also willing to have someone like Russia to help it avoid a relationship with the Syrian government and the Syrian Kurds turning difficult. Otherwise it may further threaten Ankara's border security."

Contact the writers at renqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/25/2019 page11)