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Is the Current Turkish Military Operation in Syria Legal?

Umit Bektas/Reuters

Hamoud al-Sabah, the speaker of the Syrian Parliament delivering a speech at the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, declared that the Syrian People's Council should call back its forces sent to Idlib.

"The parliament of Syria condemns the Turkish invasion to Idlib and thinks that it is a threat to the security of the country’s citizens. The Parliament of Syria demands the withdrawal of the Turkish troops without any preconditions," al-Sabah declared.

On October 13, it turned out that the Turkish armed forces, crossing the border with Syria, entered the Syrian Idlib. The Turkish General Staff issued a statement according to which the Turkish soldiers in this way start the operation of establishing posts to monitor of the ceasefire regime, according to the agreements reached in Astana by the guarantor countries (Russia, Iran and Turkey) of the ceasefire in Syria

According to the agreement the monitoring of the ceasefire regime in Idlib, which is under the control of the terrorists, should be conducted by the three guarantor states. In northeastern region it is to be conducted by the Turkish forces with Syrian moderate opposition forces, in south-east with Iran, while on the borders of these two parts – by Russia. The aim of the de-escalation zones is to raise the level of ceasefire regime efficiency, to end armed clashes, organize supply of humanitarian aid, ensure conditions for the return of the replaced population and ensure conditions for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Thus, despite of the claims by Damascus that the actions of Turkey are illegal in the territory of Syria, in reality, they are in accordance with the agreements reached in Astana. Perhaps this is the reason why the dissatisfaction expressed by Damascus on the occasion is not as radical as it was in case of the operation of "The Euphrates Shield" (President Bashar Assad and MFA of Syria have not commented on the issue yet).

It should be noted that the agreements reached in Astana are in general acceptable for Damascus: the latter has expressed no dissatisfaction on the deployment of the forces in the de-escalations zones by Russia and Iran. Such a negative attitude of Damascus to the military operations by Turkey in Idlib is explained by the tense relations between Syria and Turkey. Ankara is for overthrowing the Assad regime and gives financial, military assistance to the Syrian opposition, in case when Iran and Russia support Damascus.

The military actions of Turkey in Idlib, without any doubt, are aimed at re-gaining the positions of the armed opposition. Idlib was under the control of the latter for a long time. However, recently the terrorist organizations, suffering defeats in various parts of Syria, concentrated their forces there. It is important for Turkey to have the control  of those areas by the forces it supports to prevent any possible progress of the Kurdish forces as well as their ambitions for having autonomy there. 


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