Russian President Vladimir Putin was to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara yesterday to discuss the setup and monitoring of a combat-free zone in Syria, as well as Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system.
Putin’s visit comes two weeks after Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to establish a de-escalation zone in the Syrian province of Idlib — currently largely controlled by Muslim extremists — and to monitor violations by opposition groups or forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affars Mevlut Cavusoglu Monday complained that Russian bombings had killed civilians and could amount to a breach of the agreement.
The meeting is a sign of the closer ties between Putin and Erdogan. Turkey’s desire to purchase the Russian S-400 missile defense system has riled its fellow NATO members, especially the US, because it is not compatible with the rest of the military alliance.
Erdogan is also likely to focus on the Iraqi Kurds, who voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favor of independence in defiance of their neighbors as well as the government in Baghdad.
Turkey said it regarded the move as a direct threat to its own national security, over fears that the vote could encourage separatist Kurdish militants at home.
Turkey sent more tanks, artillery units and armored carriers to the border region with Syria following the agreement with Russia and Iran on Idlib, which came out of talks on how to end Syria’s six-year civil war.
The two leaders were expected to discuss the timing of troop deployment in the Syrian province.
“For Turkey, the Kurdish issue is much more important than it is for Russia, so Erdogan will probably focus more on the Kurdish problem,” Irina Suponina, a Middle East expert at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies — which advises the Kremlin — said yesterday by telephone. “Putin most likely will be more interested in Syria and the de-escalation zones, especially in Idlib, and economic and military cooperation.”
Despite a regional rivalry that goes back to the Ottoman Empire and the Romanov dynasty, Russia and Turkey have been working closely since a reconciliation last year ended a crisis caused by the shooting down of a Russian war plane over Syria.
“Russia and Turkey are cooperating very tightly,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday.
Yet analysts say that while both countries share an interest in seeking to discomfort the West by showing off close cooperation, their relationship falls well short of a sincere strategic alliance.
“Relations between Turkey and Russia may appear to be friendly, but they are loaded with contradictions and set to remain unstable in the near term,” Pavel Baev and Kemal Kirisci of the Brookings Institution in Washington wrote in a study this month.
Additional reporting by AFP
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