Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Monday to establish a "demilitarized zone" in Idlib under Russian-Turkish control, which could avoid an attack on the province, the last bastion of the opposition factions in Damascus.
Ten days after the failure of the Tehran summit between the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran, the heads of the two main countries in the Syrian dispute held a four-hour closed-door talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.
The Russian president then announced an agreement with Erdogan on the establishment of a "demilitarized zone" in Idlib by October 15.
"We have decided to establish a demilitarized zone with a width of 15 to 20 kilometers along the seam line starting from the 15th of October of this year," he told a news conference.
"Units of the Turkish army and the Russian military police will take control of this demilitarized zone," Putin said, stressing the need to remove them from heavy weapons belonging to all opposition factions by October 10.
The agreement also provides for the withdrawal of all armed factions described as extremist from the demilitarized zone, including the Sham Liberation Organization (formerly the Nasra Front).
Traffic on the Aleppo-Latakia and Aleppo-Hama roads will resume before the end of this year.
"I am convinced that by this agreement we have avoided a major humanitarian crisis in Idlib," Erdogan told the press conference after the meeting with Putin.
"Russia will take the necessary steps to ensure that there is no attack on the zone to reduce the escalation," he said.
Asked if this agreement meant there would be no military attack on Idlib, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Schweigu replied "yes".
It is noteworthy that since the Syrian government announced - with the support of the Russian army - its intention to restore Idlib Turkey warned pro-opposition of a "humanitarian disaster" in the event of a large-scale attack on the province.