"Trump is right about Syria, Turkey can handle it": This is how Recep Tayyip Erdogan has written a guest article in the "New York Times", in which he advocates that his country after the decided withdrawal of the US troops, the regulatory power in northeastern Syria.

But does Turkey really get that? The events in the region around Idlib since the beginning of the year make one doubt this. There, the terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is on the rise. The militia emerged in 2016 from the Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of the al-Qaeda terror network. In recent days, the HTS conquered several villages and two small towns. These had controlled militias - supported by Turkey.

First, the jihadists invaded Darat Izza. According to eyewitnesses, more than a hundred people were killed in the fighting. Shortly thereafter, they took atarib largely without a fight. To prevent similar bloodshed as in Darat Izza, the previously ruling militia Nureddin Zengi cleared the city. The only concession they could give the conqueror: The Nureddin Zengi militia and about 70 civilians, who were on a wanted list of the HTS because of their criticism of the jihadists, were allowed to withdraw without a fight - in the direction of that of Turkey and its Syrian auxiliary troops controlled region Afrin.

MIRROR ONLINE

The case of Atarib is a fatal signal for several reasons: the residents had resisted jihadist taking for years. The city was under a local self-government. Several times it was possible to prevent conquest by HTS through civil disobedience and street protests. The militia backed down long before the use of public power, for fear of losing support.

On the other hand, the case of Atarib shows that Turkey is either unable or unwilling to break the power of the jihadists in Idlib. In September 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached an agreement on the future of Idlib. The agreement provided for the creation of a demilitarized buffer zone around the province. On the other hand, the power of the terrorist HTS should be weakened.

The jihadists are getting stuck

The opposite is the case: the jihadists now control around two-thirds of the Idlib region, home to nearly three million people. And they commit themselves: like their rivals of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), they install their own courts, their own administration and a so-called "government of salvation" - although the Turkish military is stationed in the area and twelve so-called observation posts has set up.

Turkey has put its military bases on high alert and increased the self-protection of their troops, but otherwise does nothing. Ankara is currently not implementing its part of the September agreement with Russia to keep HTS in check.

The Turkish-backed Rebel Alliance "National Liberation Front" (NFL) has announced a counter-offensive for the next few days to fight back HTS. But these various militants, some of them warring with each other, are barely able to significantly weaken HTS.

This could sooner or later provide Russia and its ally, the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, with the excuse for a ground offensive against Idlib. Assad has never given up the goal of bringing this region back under his control.